∴The Tiger at the Seoul Zoo Died∴

I have a very short one for you this week. I saw somewhere online that the tiger at the Seoul zoo died. I drove an hour or so to go see the place where he’d been. ‘I don’t know what I was expecting,’ I thought, as I stood looking at an empty cage with a funerary table at my back. Sad bouquets were leaned against the glass.

I’m conflicted by what I see at the zoo. It’s hard not to interpret defeat in the animals’ eyes. I’m sure there are places where conservation is front and center. I’m sure there are places where people don’t bang bottles and slap the glass, like they did when I was there. I’m sure there are parents who teach their kids to be gentle, instead of ignoring their howls.

At one point I ended up just sitting on the floor in the room where the orangutan and the gorillas were. I went to the zoo because I thought it would be strange. On that cool floor I saw that the only strangeness was that this is all still normal.

There are good people and places where care for the animals is paramount. I have no doubt about it. I hope, despite what I saw, that I was in one of those places.