The Kuwait zoo story with the sardonic sign PLEASE DO NOT HURT THE ANIMALS as if the imprisonment itself doesn’t or the ways these animals were brought to the zoo in the first place didn’t, is also a classic example of a profound speciesism assimilation made by the zoo workers who are sure they are the animals’ protectors and the ones who educate people to love and respect animals.
Throwing stones seems, and maybe is, the most extreme thing that the visitors do to animals in zoos, however, there is a constant expectation of the "visitors" that the animal would please them. Humans demand to be taken notice of and they are insulted to find that usually the animals ignore them. They expect the animals to entertain each and every one of them. In that sense regardless of how humans act in zoos they all foster the assumption that humans are the center of the universe.
The confinement educates people for relationships based on domination and control.
It teaches hierarchy and speciesism. It teaches how to objectify sentient creatures.
How cynical is that zoo workers are writing please don’t hurt the animals when they are their worst enemies.
Imprisoning animals is so usual and banal in our world that it is not even considered a hurt and it doesn’t ruin a perfect day.
In fact, while we activists are angry and frustrated that although humans are aware of the suffering of billions of animals every single day, they don’t let that fact ruin it for them, they even carelessly include animals’ suffering in their perfect days.
