The National Zoo - Panda Love Pit?
There are oft times when I review the local news, web and radio that I am kept up with frequent happenings at the National Zoo. However, in my now seventh year in the district, I’ve failed to hear any positive news about the nation’s cherished and popular zoo without the word ‘panda’ in its name.
This year, in particular, I couldn’t help but be a bit miffed over the recent coverage of the lives of Washington popular panda couple and the ever-waking movement, bamboo chewing, and the more than frequent stumbling of baby Tai-Shan -the black and white bear with an Asian name that kinda sounds like a black kids name. The recent coverage of his 365th day on earth surpassed breaking world news out of Iraq, Iran, Northern Korea and was treated with more hearth and depth than the death of two adult male gorillas in the same zoo. More on the latter issue later.
Granted the bear (okay marsupial…whatever nerd!) is cute, and by having this creature in the nation’s capital calls increasing attention and on site education of these and all endangered species. But riddle me this? Have any of you heard of the other animals that take residence in the gated Rock Creek Park establishment? How about the giraffes…you know the one that died this past year…or the elephant that passed away suddenly from a yet unanswered disease.
For many of you who’ve known me in my years in the Washington, Dc area, you know I detest this zoo with a passion. I feel the purpose of any zoological park is to educate, elevate and advocate for all creatures great and small, furry and bald, cute and even the butt ugly. For instance, Zoo’s in Cleveland, San Diego and of course my birthplace Philadelphia (home of the nation’s first zoo) have grown to become staples of this growing evolution of conservation. One item that sets these zoos apart from the federal city’s attempt is a ticket - and the charge for entry. The feeling of getting what you pay for when you enter a park you’ve paid ten to fifteen dollars for is eminent when you enter the Philly, Columbus or San Diego equivalent. The San Diego Zoo, for example, reaps more than $500 million dollars for the recorded three million visitors that visit yearly. You’re greeted with happy & friendly flora and fauna as you zoom by on the park’s monorail anticipating your next venture to the next animal habitat.
The National Zoo, however is government funded, seen as a less than important line item on the Smithsonian Institutes’s total funding of 75 Million a year. The Zoo also reaps support of by FONZ (Friends Of the National Zoo) whose mere dollars and cents raised amounts to the equivalent of a local bake sale at your neighborhood United Methodist Church. Both of these funding options barely make for the effective care and maintenance of the hundreds and flora and fauna that survive (sometimes barely) at the nation’s zoo.
From its sordid history to a less than glowing present, the National was born from controversy and continues to this day as a comedy of errors.
The United States Congress commissioned the need for a National Zoo 1889 when the National Mall moved away from being the prime location for buying goods and services (slaves) years earlier to become the scene where traveling industrialists, politicians, and even President Theodore Roosevelt, known for his hunting trips, would exhibit these "exotic creatures" to Washington natives and visitors.
166 acres of Rock Creek Park was plotted and designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the same creator of the Capitol Hill Grounds and New York’s Central Park as the nation’s premiere zoological park. The original "Smokey the Bear," rescued from certain death in a Western forest fire, was housed and became it’s firsts star attraction before Ling-Ling and Sing-Sing made an appearance as a gift from the People’s Republic of China in 1972.
In light of its illustrious history, the zoo today is known more for animal deaths and its vain attempts to hide rodent-infested conditions and poor animal care for the supreme focus on web cams devoted to constant viewing of this one magical bear.
