Monkey see, monkey do

From: Anthony Ang via e-mail

When I read about the elephant in Langkawi, I thought that I may have made a mistake writing so soon about zoos. However after reading the article yesterday (Langkawi Elephant Found In Good Health, says parks official), I have decided to write again.

Why do NGOs such as Malaysian Friends of the Animals (MFOTA), Friends of the Orangutans (FOTO) and Nature Alert have so much stamina in criticising Malaysian zoos? So, I have one more question (since my last letter), what fields of expertise do Jennifer Yeap, Upreshpal Singh and Sean Whyte have?

What experience do they have of rearing animals, managing a zoo or coming up with a design for a zoo? It is always easy to criticise but do they have sufficient experience in the field to be that judgemental? Maybe they can display their resume on Free Malaysia Today?

I too, do not like the idea of removing wild animals from nature and putting them into zoos as this may seem stressful to these creatures, but are Malaysian Zoos doing this? Or are the animals on display captive born? Or perhaps they cannot be returned to Malaysian jungles? And what if they are released to nature again? Can they survive? Will someone catch them again? Will they hurt someone?

But I am an accountant. I would like to think the zoos, Perhilitan and wildlife experts know better. Because I would not know where to start myself.

I do not support the idea of torture whether it is human or wild animals. It isn’t right. But why must a zoo be closed down just because these NGOs say so? Did they try to contact Perhilitan or the zoos with constructive suggestions first? Why be so destructive? Maybe invite other NGOs such as WWF or MNS or even National Geographic to help if they cannot help?

One day it is Underwater World; two days later it is Langkawi Elephant Adventure.

One day this NGO, tomorrow, that NGO.

Monkey see, monkey do.

Anthony Ang is an FMT reader.

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