Gallery of Heartbreak

image from google

Your big African paw
pushed up against
the wire of your cage,
you, who should be running free
across the wild savanna, 
and your eyes - your eyes -
so sad and questing,
having lost all their wonder,
rip my heart asunder.


Though you have never
experienced freedom,
still you know 
that something - everything -
is missing
as you grow.


Two full-grown lions
penned for months on end
in a trailer
break my heart
all over again,
while their "owner"
says parting with them
would cause him 
too much pain.
Inhumane. Inhumane.
How can humans
be so inhumane?


A leopard and a tiger
are walked
on a chain,
and sad bear eyes
are crying in the rain.


At the exotic pet auctions
crocs and venomous snakes
in plastic bins
are bought by
daddies for their little boys.
The daddies puff their chests,
make their little boys tough.
The snakes are bought
as thoughtlessly
as toys,
and for daddy
big's 
not ever
big enough.



"Baby cougar, two weeks old,"
the auctioneer cries.
My heart sinks:
where's the mother
of this furry little guy?
They say
there are more tigers 
in Texas
than in all of India.
And their eyes,
I cannot bear
the look 
of anguish in
their eyes.


An elephant dances on 
a polished tv studio floor,
dull-eyed monkeys
do rote tricks,
then pretend
to be asleep
to make the people laugh,
(those who do not weep.)


Between those who
want the "right" to 
keep them
domiciled,
and those who 
seek to protect 
the animals' right
to live wild,
the animals themselves 
are caught 
in the net.
There are no 
easy answers
forthcoming,
yet.


"There are no happy endings
for the big cats,"
the safety officer says.
"They go to a zoo,
or are shot,"
as if that
is that.


They tell us we should fear them,
these creatures of the wild.
But I have  known
they've more to fear
from us,
ever since I was
a child.


Kids, I am watching the documentary The Elephant In the Living Room and it is breaking my heart. (Warning to Shay: stop reading now!) Both sides of the question of domestication of wild creatures are presented. On either side of the equation,  the animal ultimately suffers. There are no happy endings for them, taken out of the wild, into houses they ultimately cannot remain in. Their eyes pierce my heart. These beautiful creatures were never meant to look so sad. 


The main story told in the documentary is that of an old fellow in the southern States who, in poor health and with serious back issues, was given two lion cubs to cheer him up. He fell in love with them, of course, especially the male cub, Lambert. We pick up the story when the Animal Safety Officer pays a visit to the man, to see what state the animals, now fully grown, are in. Lambert had escaped the inadequate pen and the man was forced to "temporarily"  house the two adult lions in a horse trailer - this went on for five months and, at the end of this (appalling) period, the female gave birth to four cubs, one of whom died soon after birth.


Now the situation was even more urgent, and the Safety Officer mustered some friends to help to build a holding pen for the lions. The pen was small, but was the best they could do. It became obvious, given the man's health and the lions' crowded pen, this was not going to be able to continue for long. The owner resisted letting them go because he "would miss them too much".


The safety officer, trying to be proactive and hoping the owner would change his mind, phoned all over the US but no one could take two adult lions and three cubs. On a routine  visit to the owner and the lions, the safety officer witnessed (and it was caught on film) the horrible death of Lambert, in the small enclosure, his groans of distress heartbreaking as he convulsed and died. Somehow faulty wiring had caused an electrical charge to run through the wet muddy pen for fifteen minutes. Lambert had been electrocuted. He was four years old.


(This scene about did me in.)


Now the owner finally agreed to let the others go. The officer called in a personal favor, and the mother lion and two of her cubs were loaded up (one of the cubs died of unknown causes before moving day), and were taken to a lion sanctuary in Colorado where, for the first time in their lives, they would not be in a dirt pen, but free to roam a hundred fenced acres, with other lions, unconfined, to feel, for the first time, grass under their feet.


As happy an ending as was possible for these three lions, at least. But there are so many countless others owned by people who do not believe animals have consciousness, emotion, intelligence and awareness, all of which they do (more so than many humans, I often think.) The image of Lambert, groaning, convulsing and dying in his small muddy pen, I will add to my Gallery of Heartbreak "for all the beasts and the children".