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There
are many reasons why human beings keep animals. They like to eat them,
love them, abuse them, feel protected by them, laugh and scream at them.
In other words, animals become surrogate mothers, fathers, lovers, children,
bodyguards, teachers, entertainers and priests.
And on top of all this, there is power. We use animals to make us feel
in control, and to encourage their sense of dependency.
When you think about it, animals in captivity require very little of
us - regular meals, somewhere warm to sleep, and a degree of consistency
in our treatment of them. Surprisingly, they often seem grateful for
this, even though we have deprived them of their freedom.
Moreover, animals are seldom judgmental or sycophantic. The alley cat
turning his gaze on Charlie Chaplin seems remarkably unimpressed. Does
the creature licking Goering's evil mug care one jot about the Nazi
horrors? The sea lion in the tank is quite happy to give the woman swimmer
a lip-smacker, if that's what she really wants.
But look a little closer. Is it too fanciful to detect a glimmer of
inner resistance in the eyes and expressions of these captives? Are
we witnessing the outer manifestation of some massive Jungian revenge
being plotted within their genes? Will our grandchildren's grandchildren
witness the greatest horror movie of all time, as these archetypal pressures
detonate a massive explosion of uncontrolled fury, and the whole animal
kingdom screams out, "Enough"? Then, my friend, the human
race will be on the receiving end, spiraling into an evolutionary black
hole, as these lesser species sock us the Big Payoff for millions of
years of indignity, humiliation, cruelty and thoughtless provocation.
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