Parenting Tips with Melanie Wilson

Melanie Wilson is vegan mom to Kalli MacKenzie. She is the owner and editor of Vegetarian Baby and Child Magazine (www.vegetarianbaby.com), a writer, educator, and researcher. She is currently working on her first book on vegetarian parenting. Her articles have been published on iParenting.com, MomsOnline.com, and will soon appear at VegDining.com. She is also an accredited La Leche League Leader.

Question:

What do vegan parents do when it comes time to consider taking your kids to the zoo? We're having a hard time with this. On the one hand we think we can make it an educational experience but on the other we don't want to support captive animals. What should we do?

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Answer:

I think you can do both: make it an educational experience by taking your child and using the opportunity to teach him or her that you don't support captive animals. Of course, you can choose not to support the zoo at all monetarily by simply not ever going. But I think a one-time trip to the zoo is a perfect occasion to show children first-hand why it's not the ideal environment for animals. One look at a huge, pacing tiger in his cage will make it clear that there simply isn't enough room for an animal to move around, be healthy and happy. In short, it isn't natural.

If you decide to go, use the visit to point out that no matter how much money and effort the zoo spends on creating "natural habitats", the animals are still trapped in a confined area. They cannot choose their own companions. They cannot eat what or when they want to, or be entirely alone when they need to be. Ask your child to imagine how these animals might live if they were in the wild, then expand on that to visualize how very different their lives would be down to the smallest detail. These are just some of the issues to touch upon!

It's important for children to be aware that places like this exist, to see them and experience them in order to fully understand and to cogently explain to others why they don't agree with their existence. You'll hear zoo lovers make the argument that these institutions do a lot to help maintain endangered species and further the understanding of animal behaviors. I would argue that nurseries can be set up in endangered animals' countries of origin which can provide the same services and return the animals to a natural environment as quickly as possible. And what better place to learn about animal behavior than in their native habitats. If these options are too inconvenient for researchers, then perhaps they are in the wrong line of work! Zoos can be wonderful educational tools to help our children learn about the interconnectedness of all beings and a starting place for discussing the many options to holding animals in captivity.

If you decide not to go, there are still many books and videos to help children understand these issues.

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