One of the ways that a society can be judged is by how it treats its vulnerable members and also its animals. I remember very well the fight to ban circuses in Malta and I am still confused how legally, the so called Mediterraneo Marine Park is not considered as so. The Labour government however has failed to enforce the law and even regularised illegal zoos in its desperation to appease rich people, as usual.
There’s some really weird and bizarre shit going on with exotic animals in Malta, the impunity is senseless and shows a great sense of stupidity and lack of empathy in our society.
There’s a huge moral gap between eating animals out of necessity such as buying meat from the supermarket, and spending excessive capital on the captivity and the breeding of exotic animals for entertainment purposes. There is nothing educational in keeping animals in captivity and forcing them to do tricks for crowds. I find it unethical to keep large dogs in apartments let alone keeping exotic animals in pools or cages. Even if the animal is bred in captivity, it’s still torture and senseless.
Zoos are something of the past. When zoos were fashionable, human freaks were too and people used to pay money just to laugh and humiliate them in public. Our morality has changed and we have evolved intellectually since then. Some Maltese are still catching up, apparently. People in power do not care about the treatment of animals and its broad consequences and implications on society because it is easier to appease total imbeciles with their horrible pastimes instead of regulating society for the common good. Here’s an example. This is a show aired on the public broadcaster where Maltese singer, “La Barokka” discusses her passion for spending time with captive tigers in a “park” in Malta owned by a certain Christopher Borg. The park was burnt by accident killing the animals inside it and the imbecile boasted of intending to build it back again. The TV host cheered him.
Insane that these irregular parks have been allowed to sprawl with impunity. Even more insane than these idiocies are being normalised in our society. There are plenty of them, some of them less public than others. One of these zookeepers is justifying his activity with children who enjoy seeing the animals in captivity – this is very unethical. Extracting joy from captive animals is unnecessarily exploitative irrespective of how disabled, autistic, and poor you are. To use vulnerable children to justify your bizarre hobbies is disgusting.
I’m never going to agree with the idea that a man who breeds tigers loves animals selflessly: yes, they love them but as their slaves for entertainment purposes. What’s there to love in a tiger in a cage? If you really love animals selflessly then I would expect you to spend your excessive capital saving dogs and cats from shelters instead of creating more animals in captivity.
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