JahaRa
Truth Seeker
I just remember being very upset when my mother took us to the zoo in the late 50's and early 60's to see the lion and wolf and eagle in a cage. At that time the zoo was very small. The property was huge with plans to enlarge the zoo but in the meantime it was a very nice park to tak the family in. The only animals I liked watching werre the prairie dogs because they were essentialy in a habit that imitated their actual habitat, though it was constricted it wasnt' a cage. When I was in 1st grade a local television children's show host called Captain Billy started a campaign to enlarge and enhance the zoo. He started an annual fund raiser for the zoo and raised enough money the first year to build an elephant habitat and buy a baby elephant. It was great on the one hand but not for the baby elephant that was alone for several years until they could afford another elephant. By the 70's that zoo was better than any I have seen around the country, and even in Germany. I have not been to any zoos outside of the Albuqueque zoo in years so I am hoping others have changed and quit putting the animals in tiny cages. In the mid 70's I was shocked when I went with a friend to the Atlanta zoo, a city much larger than Albuquerque but their zoo was sadly behind the times.