+1 I have to agree. There are far larger issues at hand. I do agree to a point with the original post, and yes it is a tragedy when someone/something dies needlessly.
I honestly believe no one that keeps a reef tank can claim to be a friend of the environment. We are selfish beings and as selfish beings we like having things to amuse ourselves. It's when we look beyond our own wants and needs that we can claim to be environmentally conscientious.
Am I environmentally friendly.... no, I have multiple tanks.
Overall I think Zoo's make a positive impact on a societies views on nature. It makes people interested, and when we are interested we care. This is a double edged sword. On one side it makes people interested, and therefore want to have the things they are interested in (reef tanks, rare animals/plants, etc). On the other side it makes people consider the consequences to their actions and decisions they make concerning the environment.
Someday I'd like to see corals and sea life on the reefs and that's it. But the flipside to that is that maybe one day the only corals and reefs we will be able to observe will be in tanks... Maybe proper conservation and collection in institutionary established reef systems will save the reefs?
In the end who knows, do I think humans will destroy the oceans forever... not really. And if we do I'd bet humans wouldn't be too far behind. The Earth would recuperate, new animals would evolve to fill the niches and life would go on.
And the entire time we'd continue to kill each other over natural resources and religious ideals.
Man..... that was a rant!
Scott
Quote:
Originally Posted by G1GY
I only read the first post so I'm probably going to say something that someone has already said, but here goes anyhow.
It's kind of crappy that an animal under the care of humans has had this happen, but these kinds of unfortunate accidents actualy happen to people too! How many children got hung by the cords of blinds before we learned and you can still go to Rona and buy a set of blinds. How many young children have drowned in 5 gallon water buckets? I haven't seen paint available in a single use bag yet. How many kids have been suffocated by plastic bags? And the list goes on and on.
When we see a wild goats neck in the jaws of a large cat on National Geographic............ It's natural sellection, but if that same goat gets accidentaly killed at the zoo people sometimes lose focus of the bigger picture.(All of the good that zoos provide.)
It's sad and all, but I couldn't justify even spending the time to think about closing a zoo for something like this when there are so many "people" that could use some help in this world.
Just my 2 cents.
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