Prior to starting Zoo Story, I was well aware of the fact that everyone has an opinion about zoos. People either enjoy zoos and frequent them, supporting their educational causes and believing their publicized missions of conservation, or people find the sight of their animals living in captivity for human entertainment and/or profit to be depressing and morally reprehensible. I already knew which side of the fence I was on, so to speak. I was curious to see what the book would show me of life behind the scenes of the American zoo industry.
I found Zoo Story to take a morally distanced and mostly objective view of the zoo institution. It mainly follows Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo, a nonprofit organization that rose out of disrepair to become wildly successful, but not without more than a fair share of scandal along the way.
Thomas French's investigation into Lowry Park illustrates that zoos are indeed, above all, a business venture. He marvels at the zoo's financial successes that hinge on carefully timed animal insemination and births, coexisting with the industry's posted mission of encouraging conservation and animal protection. The zoo relied on the rarest and most exotic of its inhabitants to draw in the crowds, thus ensuring that future generations of rare species would spend their lives behind bars. French's skeptical eye notices it all, and he presents it all to the reader without much comment.
Zoos are quick to promote their conservation efforts, claiming that it is through their work that some endangered species may avoid total extinction. They have developed very specific breeding protocol, creating a seemingly endless line of infant animals that just so happen to draw large crowds of paying visitors to facilities. Thanks to zoos, humans have developed an incredible ability to dominate the species on this planet to the point at which we may determine which individual animal reproduces and who doesn't. Zoos allow humans to play God with creatures we should never even be touching. It's depressing and impressive at the same time.
The zoos' carefully staged illusion of wilderness generates an atmosphere of the 'attractive exotic', all meant to convey that everything - the animals on display, the piped-in music, the meticulous landscaping - is under control and not really wild. Zoos promise the beauty of foreign animal species without including any of their dangers....hopefully. Zoo Story describes more than a few instances of escaped animals and tragic aggression against zoo staff, which shows that as much as people can try to dominate wild animals, they will never truly succeed.
One of the most telling parts of the book involved the logistical nightmare of transporting elephants on a jet over the ocean. The pachyderms were transported away from natural social groups in their homeland, simply in order to satisfy a distant public's desire to view them in Tampa. The author uses this example as but one part of a larger puzzle, asking the reader to reconsider wether zoos truly have the best interests of their animals at heart. Zoo Story offers a glimpse behind the scenes in a way that would normally never be available to the public. The stories French found need to be told.
French's writing is clear and assertive. John Allen Nelson's narration is similarly smooth and emotive, with a special flair for accents that truly bring the book's personalities to life. The part I enjoyed most was when the author describes a black-tie fundraising gala at Lowry Park. The eye with which he characterizes the attendees - as if he were observing another species and their related plumage, dominance hierarchies, and mating rituals - was quite amusing. It clearly showed that we, primates, are but just another animal.
I have a young daughter, and I admit that a small part of me wants to take her to a zoo, if only to see her eyes widen in wonder as she takes in exotic sights she would never see otherwise. But I know I won't take her, because I also don't want to feel the shame as I see the animals' eyes, from behind bars, looking back.
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