Captivating Exotic Animals: An Educational Value

Film Paper:

Captivating Exotic Animals: An Educational Value

The life of an exotic animal could potentially be filled with behavioral, social, and playful interaction that would appear in its appropriate environment and species. However, a large amount of these exceptional animals frequently spend the majority of their life in zoos, oceanariums, and other parks providing entertainment and amusement for human society. Menageries seek to gain animals in captivity for the value of social progress; providing the public with what they interpret as fun, amusing and harmless entertainment at the expense of the exotic animal, claiming it to be of an educational value. In this paper, I will be discussing the concept of captivating exotic animals in the name of public education and will be using the film and the extent of the readings in class to further explore this subject.

When one goes to a zoo or an oceanarium, one of the typical attractions he or she usually participates in are the shows that feature some type of exotic animal that will be performing tricks and amusement for the audience. He or she may go there with the expectation that the animal will be interactive, playful and full of energy. Essentially, the audience seeks to gain knowledge about the animal, an understanding of what its day-to-day life may consist of, but does so in terms of our own language, emotions and experiences (Franklin, 1999, p. 62). The public thinks that by attending these shows, society is being educated about the behavioral and social life of these animals, when in fact we have no idea whatsoever about the animal’s environmental lifestyle in the wild, except what the menageries expose us to. The zoological gaze explains this reality: suggesting that we take an anthropocentric approach in observing the animals taken into captivity. Human perception and our understanding of captive animals undermine what is truly appropriate for the animal and instead focuses on what society deems is necessary for public education.

The significance of captivity for animals that spend their lives providing social entertainment for humans is said to be of an educational value. Adrian Franklin, author of Animals & Modern Cultures, says in his book, “…animals at that time were clearly subjects of humanity, useful for their service and value to society” (Franklin, 1999, p. 68).This perception still proves to be true in today’s society as the public attends performances, watching with eager eyes the said-to-be lifestyles of these exotic animals, believing it to be an inexpensive way to understand them. Yet, this often leads to the misunderstanding that we are learning about these striking animals’ lifestyles through their performances or reading the label on their cages, when in fact we are interpreting their lives based on where society has placed them and how they have taught them how