The outcry was deafening, the apology fulsome and the sense of national pride palpable. Paora the kiwi would no longer be offered up for paid encounters by Zoo Miami. The payment for a pat of our nocturnal national bird displayed in bright light would stop forthwith.
Hurrah! There are few feelings more gratifying than righteous indignation affirmed.
But once the sense of triumph had subsided, other reactions began to surface. Images of high-profile New Zealanders and celebrities cuddling kiwi in daylight were shared on social media. They included three former prime ministers (Clark, Key and Ardern), Greens co-leader Marama Davidson and Sir Paul McCartney. Outrage gave way to sneaking admissions of doubt and guilt about the nature of zoos.
An opinion writer pointed to the hypocrisy of standing up for a single kiwi, despite fiddling with tarantulas and accepting lions in enclosures in our own zoos that were much smaller than the wild they evolved in.
While thrilled the practice of paid petting of our taonga had stopped, even the director of Auckland Zoo, Kevin Buley, had misgivings about the Paora victory. Twenty-four hours after the story broke in June, he observed that millions of animals had died in that time as a result of factors including rainforest destruction, infectious diseases and introduced predators such as rats running through populations. Millions? “Yes, millions if you include invertebrates, because they are animals, too.”
SYMBOLS OF POWER
When it comes to zoos, we humans are nothing if not inconsistent. You might even say hypocritical.
