Tuesday November 3, 2009, 9:32 am
what freaks me out is that it has taken almost a year for the Zimbabwian government to bloody act! This has been in the news for ages - and only now do these sods act! RIP Dumasani

Tuesday November 3, 2009, 2:59 pm
Sadly, we are lucky that there was any action at all. All of humanity not only suffers from our disconnection with nature but our exceptionally serious loss for not respecting these highly intelligent and social creatures. Also, very tragically, just the type of behavior that we abhor -- this desire of humans to have animals act like vaudeville tapdancers -- may end up being the key to buying certain species time. (Depressed? Take action WHILE you are pouting and crying.) ALSO, so many people in the "first" world are so unfamiliar with what motivates others in Third World countries that it's no wonder this abuse occurs. There are simply too many people in the world and they/we become desperate for jobs/food/bread so therefore resort to this type of behavior. Those living in the U.S. will recall how terribly inhumane many zoos were from their inception to, say, the 1990s. (There are still many bad zoos and personal collections but at least true biologists and conservationists are now aware of what humane exibits require -- in addition to lots of cash!)