Humanities

Gorilla at the Bronx Zoo; woman at a protest at ICE headquarters, Vermont.

I took the subway to the Bronx Zoo. It is always a mixed experience. I’d like to believe the many signs the zoo posts, assuring visitors that enclosing and displaying intelligent, wide-ranging creatures supports conservation. I’d like to believe, too, that it can be a kindness to confine select wild animals: The crowd-pleasing big cats, the bankable great apes may be old, or injured, or have never known the wild; they would not survive in their natural habitats. I half believe it all, until I look into their eyes and see myself.