Artis is our living colonial heritage on which many still turn a blind eye

Amsterdam Zoo was established at a time when exhibiting people from far away was just as normal as collecting wild animals.

Emancipation is a topic that many parties in Amsterdam city council talk about. Emancipation of women, emancipation of LGBTIQ + people, emancipation of people with an immigrant background; parties such as D66, PvdA, CU and SP have a great sense of justice and equality when it comes to people. It is also a common practice at the Animal Festival. But with these other political parties, the moral idea gets stuck with people. Locking up animals for the entertainment of people is still normal for these holidays.

Amsterdam’s city council on Wednesday debated Artis’ lions, which were then set to move to a larger compound in France. “Artis sans lions is like the Rijksmuseum without the Night Watch. It’s a shame that the lions have to move! Not a word of relief that the lions will likely have a little more living space. “It’s not about the animals,” a UC spokesperson literally said. And that was the heart of the debate: it was not the lions that were at the center, but the people. People have the right to see wild animals in the heart of Amsterdam.

Like us, animals are living things with needs and feelings. For example, a lion in the wild runs 80 kilometers per hour, but in Artis only moves a few meters forward. Containment leads to abnormal behaviors such as agitated back and forth in many animals. Some animals are even given antidepressants.

“Children – rich or poor – need to be able to see iconic animals up close. We live in a city and not in the savannah ”, argued a D66 adviser. However, to my question that not everyone can fly and if we should expose people again, his answer was no.

Artis was born at a time when exhibiting people from distant lands was just as common as collecting wild animals. These “exotic” people and animals were brought to the West for visitors to see. Fortunately, the people’s exhibition has ended, but the animals are still a collector’s item.

It’s no surprise that people think positively about zoos. It has been taught to us that way. A visit to the zoo was indeed a family outing. However, a different point of view is desperately needed – just like in the discussion of Zwarte Piet. This discussion also started late, but luckily turned quickly.

There is no moral justification for humans to allow their own curiosity and greed to take precedence over the interests of the animals themselves for entertainment. This interest lies in a life in the wild, where humans stop poaching and destroy the land and leave the animals alone. Right now, we are creating a battered Noah’s Ark with a collection of animals that can never be returned to their natural habitat. We keep this under the still vibrant colonial mindset of humans. A desire to collect trophies only for entertainment. Zoos are a very sad part of our current society that everyone will no doubt remember with great regret in the future. When do people open their eyes and stop this oppression of animals?