Freedom Interrupted: Examining the Ethics of Keeping Beings Behind Bars

Am I the only one who feels really weird about zoos, when I see videos of other species and beings who feel pain, fear, and love just as deeply as we do? bleed the same colored blood that as us, who have eyes and ears and legs and hands who give birth and reproduce just like any other human, being caged up and being harassed by humans to the point where some of them even get violent and a lot of times they even have to be sterilized or given medicines to keep them calm when they are put in cages for the entertainment of human beings.

If all beings are born free, think about it, you don’t have to pay a fee to be born. You are just because you are already born with freedom. All beings have that right. We are supposed to be free, so why is it that some species consider themselves to be better than others? if you ever just sit back and observe a zoo without all the other people around you too give you adrenaline but you just kind of sit and observe these beings whose lives matter just as much as yours being caged up when you look into their eyes and you see their movements and you see that sadness in them, do you ever feel that’s something isn’t right. Does it ever feel like something is off?

I guess it’s just me or maybe other people don’t voice it enough, but there’s a reason in spirituality around the world like Buddhism for example they always say to treat other beings the way you would treat yourself that also includes not caging them up because would you ever want to be stuck in a cage your whole life having to be mocked and harassed by being who think they are better than you? maybe it’s just food for thought.

If freedom is innate, why do we accept that some must live entire lives confined for our entertainment? Why call it “conservation” when the reality often includes psychological distress, forced sterilization, and a lifetime under the gaze of those who believe they hold dominion?

Not too long ago in history they’re also used to be human zoos, and they still exist somewhere deep in the underbelly of rich people who are bored. But back then the human zoos were completely public to everyone, and they consisted of people of African descent, Native Americans, and so-called freak shows where humans who didn’t look like other humans characteristically like maybe they had a bigger hand compared to other humans of their area or maybe they had a Smaller nose compared to other humans of their area, or maybe they were taller than the other humans in their area.

they would be considered freaks and would be put up in cages where they have to perform for the amusement of the so-called normal “humans”. when I was watching a documentary on the past of human zoos a lot of the comment and dialogue around it was very angry based and everyone was like “how can you treat a human being like that, another human like it’s an animal” but it made me think of it like how can you treat another being like that period”. how can a being be born with god-given freedom but have it taken away by another being that considers itself to be greater?

And on the topic of human beings considering themselves to be greater, who gave you that right? Who decided and what decided that you were greater than another being? Who and what decided you were more intelligent than another being? Why do you measure the intelligence of another species / being by the intelligence of a human? a spider acts the way it does because that is the way it is supposed to be. It is only great at being a spider because that is how it survives, a human being acts the way it does because that is how it survives, it is only good at being a human being. A cat would most likely consider a human being to be stupid, not because the human being actually is stupid but because the human being is only good at being a human and if the cat is measuring the intelligence of the human based on the intelligence of itself or the intelligence of a cat then yeah it would consider a human being to be stupid.

who gave you the right to decide what is Worthy of freedom and what is it and who is worthy of it and who isn’t? If it was your child locked in a cage for the amusement of Adults who thought the child was stupid just because the child only knows how to be a child, how would you feel?

We call ourselves the most advanced species, yet our advancement often manifests as control rather than coexistence. We confine, breed, and display, then act surprised when the confined resist — as any conscious being would when stripped of liberty.

A human child is considered stupid by a human adult, not because the child actually is stupid but because the child only knows how to be a child.

So again I ask, who gave you the right to decide who deserves freedom and who doesn’t when every Soul no matter the body that it occupies is born with freedom.

There’s a reason many feel uneasy in these places, even if they can’t explain why. It’s the same reason we hesitate when meeting the gaze of the confined — we recognize their suffering because, deep down, we know it’s unjust.

So I Ask, Who gave you that right?