I was motivated to write by constantly seeing people’s discussion about animals and zoos in social media.
We are all so individual in how we think and act; the world having billions of different perspectives. Sometimes a different perspective from your own manifests the why’s and how’s in your mind – “Why are they doing that? How is it helping?”. This reminds me that each perspective is useful and should not be quickly judged, but instead tried to be understood and gently guided to stretch and understand our own. In a conservation world, there are so many sides to a story. Being able to help in a conservation-motivated zoo, it has sometimes angered me that people become angry and discourage zoos to be horrible, but I realise that there are many zoos in other parts of the world that might not have the same quality focus for their animals. By listening to the anger some people share, and then sharing my perspective and story of zoos that help and are dedicated to conservation efforts, who knows, it might just guide their anger towards to where animals need it most. It’s worth a try right?
Charlize (YATZ Member)