There are some outstanding books about animals and here are two current titles that I believe merit the attention of all animal lovers.
Grizzyville: Adventures in Bear Country, by Jake MacDonald
This great book, written by a journalist and short story writer, takes a no-holds-barred look at grizzly, black and polar bears from the perspective of
- people who love them and wouldn’t shoot them
- people who love them but are OK with shooting them,
- and people whose loved ones have been mauled to death by bears, but who have forgiven the bears and still admire them for being what they are: part of God’s creation.
MacDonald goes around Canada and the northern United States interviewing people who have had close encounters with bears. We gain a greater understanding of bears through their eyes. MacDonald’s jocular writing style makes it seem as though we’re listening to him speak, rather than reading his words. His powerful prose brings us to the Arctic, to the wilds of suburban Vancouver, and to the outback of Minnesota to meet a man who talks to bears and lets them in as houseguests.
Yes there are bears that will treat a man with respect and stay out of his way, but there are also man-eating bears, and we read the horrific tales of peoples’ demise at the claws of bears who for one reason or another went insane. There are all kinds of theories posited for the bears’ reactions, from starvation to being the youngest, henced most picked upon bear in a litter of three.
This is what I think: bears who have at one point in their life been abused or even simply tormented by human beings will exact their revenge on the next person they meet.
One thing is certain, and that is that everyone has an opinion on bears, and nobody knows anything about bears. They remain an enigma, and people’s own experiences dictate how the feel about these lords of the North American wilderness (and suburban back yards, in a growing number of cases).
Zoo Story by Thomas French
French, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist based in Florida, recounts the rise and fall and then slight recovery of Lowry Park in Florida, a zoo famous for flying 11 elephants from Swaziland to the United States in 2003, amidst a flurry of national and global protest.
The elephants were at peril in their native country, not only from poachers but from themselves. They were literally eating themselves out of house and home on their native soil, leaving the African landscape bare of 200-year-old trees whose vegetation the elephants craved. It’s an ongoing problem that we learn more about in this fascinating tale of a zoo gone berserk and the horrible deaths that happen when mankind thinks it knows best.
You will read this book in a day, if you have the time, and I do suggest you set aside a day to get through the book because you will not want to leave your seat.
For zoo-haters like me, this book both justifies and condemns our stance. Zoos have a place in this world and can do good, but I believe that human frailness, stupidity, and carelessness will always make life in zoos a bittersweet place for animals in captivity.
A lovely website in memory of the animals who died because of careless at the Lowry Park zoo. Please do visit and pay your respects to Herman and Enshallah.
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