[WhiteTiger]

An interestingly relevant article from, of all places, the Calgary Sun:

http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/02/20...s-with-animals

It was sad, surreal — and also a sign of how significantly better zoos are in the modern world.

“This error is simply unacceptable,” said curator Colleen Baird.

And she’s right — but the error was also made with the best of intentions, in stimulating the otter’s curiosity and encouraging interaction with the object. Go back 30 or 40 years and ask the zookeepers of the day about “enrichment items,” and you’ll be answered with blank stares, or directions to the gift shop

The Calgary Zoo made mistakes then too, though often they were acts of ignorance, because animals kept in a zoo way back when were there for one purpose: entertainment.

“Joey is a bit of a disappointment at the Calgary Zoo. A chimpanzee, Joey doesn’t do any of the things chimps are expected to do, and zoo officials think he’s plain chump, not chimp,” reads an Oct. 15, 1951 wire story about Calgary’s newest resident.

Animal safety wasn’t so hot either, and in a 1964 interview, long-serving Baines talked about the time in 1938, when a lion managed to attack a young grizzly, tearing its tongue out — and though little is known about the interspecies fight, there is a picture in the Glenbow Museum archives of a grizzly at the zoo during the 1940s, described as having no tongue.

Maybe it was the same bear who in 1958 made headlines for getting trapped in the only furniture in his cell, an old rubber tire that ended up wedged around the grizzly’s abdomen.

“Keepers worried he might be stuck with it and were trying to figure how to get it off the 600-pound potential bundle of fury,” read the paper, dated March 26.

That bear eventually managed to free itself — a vastly better fate than many of its cell mates suffered each year.

In 1939, for example, the Calgary Zoo destroyed three coyotes, one raccoon, seven rabbits, four wild turkeys and a pair of Canada geese, all for reasons of “economy,” according to the annual report to city council.

The zoo has come so far since then — and if pants and otters are a big mistake, at least it’s an error with the best interest of the animal in mind.

Come a long way, for sure. I was pretty shocked at some of the things in this article. Still a ways to go, but it's easy to forget the progress made with only the destination in mind.