Animal Voices ~ Chapter 19

ANIMAL VOICES

Chapter Nineteen: Animals in Captivity

This chapter looks at various perspectives of captivity and what that experience holds -- for humans and animals. A number of animals contributed their insights to this chapter, including whales, dolphins, snakes and more. The following excerpt offers two perspectives: one from an elephant who once lived in a zoo and one from a giraffe who lost her mother to captivity.

Captivity is one of those interesting words in which meaning is dependent upon perspective. To be in captivity is to be held prisoner. One can be held just as captive by strong emotions as by any bars in a jail. If you are captive, as in a captive audience, you are obliged to be present. And not far from captivity is captivate, to be held in fascination with special charm or beauty.

Just as there are many sides of captivity, there is a multifaceted wall of shadow content surrounding the issue of animals in captivity. What do we feel when we face animals in zoos, circuses and other performing acts? Is there an irony in the captive captivating us? What does the underlying pattern of collecting and holding animals in cages so that humans can watch them reflect to us? Deeper still, what do we do to ourselves when we capture an animal and force that being to live inside a cage?

The issue of captivity is a source of powerful emotions for both humans and animals, and it is easy to become captive to the notion of captivity itself, endlessly caught in a morass of questions regarding morality, human rights, animal rights, karma, and more.

Any deep journey into the shadow world requires leaving behind superficial notions of right and wrong. To carry morality down into the mines of the shadow is to sabotage the expedition, for one merely ends up with justifications – seeing exactly the type of boogey monsters one expects to meet down in the dark. Meeting the shadow is about digging deeper into a vision of who we really are. If we truly want to understand the shadow meaning of animals in captivity, we must first ask ourselves: what does this reflect to us?

When I asked Morgine Jurdan about animals in captivity, she contacted Belle, an elephant who resided for many years at a zoo in Oregon. Belle had also raised her young in captivity. Morgine told Belle about this book, relating that many humans would be interested in knowing about her role, as well as the role of other animals, in captivity. Although Belle was now in spirit form, she related that she had much to say about her life in the zoo.

I loved being in the Zoo. I had many friends there and we were a close family. It was difficult to leave. I am not angry with people. I often find them amusing. I know people come to look at me; however, I would often look back and examine them. It was fun.

I know many people assume I would be happier in my native environment. However, I chose to come into this experience to be near people. I wanted to teach them lessons they might not learn in other ways. People love the elephants at the zoo. Some people come just to see us. Once they do, and once they make that connection, they often feel different about other animals in captivity. We are huge and big and yet so kind and gentle. It amazes people how gently and delicately we can respond to one another. It is something you could learn from us.

I know many animals come to zoos because they want to connect with humans. There are others reasons too. Did you know that some people take time to be animals, to learn about life from a different perspective? Sometimes they lived lives in which they were cruel to us and they feel they can learn more by experiencing life as we do.

Some animals are surprised to end up here and they have problems. What is most difficult is the idea of a cage and bars and glass and things that prevent us from getting close to one another. I liked it most when I could touch people and interact with them. And I love babies! They are so fun to watch and talk to. Babies understand us all very well and can usually tell us many things. I love them most of all.

I think having animals interact with people is beneficial. It helps them to get to know us better, to see and realize our oneness. I am sad when humans do this in a way that portrays us as prisoners behind bars. This affects our spiritual and emotional nature. We are affected on all levels. Intention is so important. We are often treated as a display, not an individual with our own unique personality and qualities. We, like humans, are each different in many ways. All lions and giraffes and gorillas and anteaters are not alike.

I enjoy most the zoos where many of us can mingle with one another and develop relationships. Many species enjoy being with one another, like in some bird exhibits. We live in the moment and enjoy things that are new and fresh and alive and different...

I think humans desire to have a connection with animals and yet do not know how to make it. You feel afraid of what you do not understand. Some people think they can learn something about us by studying our behavior in zoos. You can no more learn about us looking through bars than you can about the human race by examining prisoners in prison! Being wild and free to be who we are is where our true natures lie...

I send love to all people reading this wonderful book. I adore you all and look forward to a time when we can all share, consciously, our love and appreciation of one another.

~ Belle

Though Belle chose her experience of living in a zoo, not all animals feel the same. And, even if an animal reports a conscious choice of captivity, this does not imply that such a life is easy. As communicator Sharon Callahan relates, although many wild animals choose to serve in this way, "it must never negate the tremendous sacrifice and suffering they endure to bring these lessons to us."

Lessons to humans are not the only ones that emerge from captivity, for animals taken from the wild are not solitary creatures. Many are part of an existing social structure. Many have young. What are the lessons learned by the animals left behind?

When Jeri Ryan asked the giraffe species to speak as part of this book, a young female giraffe living in the wilds of Africa answered the call. As the giraffe initially seemed reluctant to speak, Jeri told her the purpose of the talk was to help humans become more aware of other animals and the “significant place of all animals on Mother Earth.”

“And she is indeed our mother,” replied the giraffe. “My mother always said that to me; that I have more than one mother. She was my mother and Earth is my mother. I didn't know that humans felt the same way.”

While the giraffe spoke more about her significant place on the earth, she commented that her wish for humans was to “know of the quiet and peace of my home. I have heard that it has shrunk. I feel that smallness. I am very young in this body, so I don't know what was before. Yet I feel a difference.”

Jeri asked how this was so.

“I feel confined although I have known nothing else in this lifetime,” said the giraffe. “It makes me feel like I'm running in circles; I feel closed in. It’s pretty silly. I don't have to run in circles. I can still expand myself. My mother told me she had faith in me, that I would understand it all when I discovered that what I think is a prison isn't that at all.”

“You have felt your shrunken home to be a prison?” asked Jeri.

“Yes. That is a struggle for us all. Some never believe that and some never leave that. My mother said it is always a matter of time, that we all have a chance to leave the prison of a closed and fearful heart. I have encouragement from that. She was so wise and gentle."

“Is she with you?” Jeri asked.

“No. She got a great sickness and died. I could not even be with her when she died. She was in a box with bars in a far away place. She told me of it from a distance.”

“I am sorry,” said Jeri. “How did that happen?”

“Something was wrapped around her neck and feet, and she was carried away with others. She told me from there of keeping my heart out of prison. That’s what she had to learn.”

“It sounds like she learned it well,” said Jeri.

“She did,” said the giraffe.

“It sounds like you have learned it well.”

“I have. And I still learn. I keep remembering her soft, loving, kind wisdom. I must live up to that.”

Giraffe

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