Many have made the observation that a society that abandons a universal moral standard will substitute a lesser moral position and become fiercely "puritanical" about it. Witness the supression of smoking tobacco in public places, and especially the campaign to stomp out cigarettes among teenagers. Meanwhile we pass out condomns to 14-year-olds and imply that losing one's virginity is no big deal and that there really is nothing "to save for marriage."
I can't help but wonder if a similar subsitition has taken place in the media at least when it comes to its general pro-abortion bias being balanced out by its tender concern for all the other long-leggedly beasties who inhabit our fragile planet. A zoo can pretty much guarantee news coverage should a gorilla have a miscarriage or dolphin have an organ transplant or get stranded off the Florida coast.
The Chicago zoos are no exception. Last month a story made it on to the front page about a female penguin widow who took up with younger mates then settled on a scrawny"teenage" male whom officials thought hadn't even reached puberty (he had). The headlining of the story and the journalistic spin turned it into a soap about a sexually agressive widower who preyed on younger men. An animal mirror for human behavior? Well, it probably helps sell newspapers.
But as far as sensitivity to the plight of animals goes, the latest comes from the Lincoln Park Zoo. The zoo's president Kevin Bell has offered to resign because in the past 5 months 3 elephants, one camel, one gorilla and (this week) 3 monkeys have died. Animal rights protesters have been all over the stories, decrying the conditions at the zoo, or Chicago's weather as a factor. (One of the elephants, by the way, was 55 and died from causes associated with old age; another, 35, died from a "rare lung disease; the gorilla, 7, was put down after not responding to transfusions and dialysis.)
Investigations are being made into conditions of the various well-funded exhibits. I do not suspect anything will be found, though the 3 rare monkeys that died this week had just been moved to a new exhibit space. Should anything be found, no expense will be spared to set things right and make conditions as perfect as humanly possible.
Though I am not sure how good human beings are when it comes to identifying the conditions that make for the best habitat. I note that within the city limits there are some high schools where the young of the species who haven't drop out and can be found roaming the streets, are taught that it doesn't matter whether or not you mate for life, that the human may engage in sexual activity with either sex as long as no one is being forced, that it doesn't matter whether or not a young male is raised by his mother and father, or by two females, or one female, that should a young female become impregnated by a reckless male, or by a committed mate (it doesn't matter which), it makes no difference, it has no effect, whether she asks another male to dismember her offspring in the womb and vacuum it out--or just let it live, that if she lacks a mate she may go from male to male as she wishes (as the males seem to not mind) and sexually engage as consent allows, and all this makes not the slightest difference when it comes to the well-being of the species. Well, as long as they don't smoke after sex, that is.
Let's just hope People for the Ethical Treament of Animals doesn't find out about this scandal.
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