Ska Ⓥ

“Dolphins wearing oversized spectacles, dolphins having their teeth cleaned with a toilet brush, dolphins singing a squeaky rendition of “Happy Birthday” — this, the most ubiquitous style of dolphin dressage — probably reveals more about the ailing human spirit and its self-imposed divorce from Mother Nature, than anything about the true nature of cetaceans.”
― William Johnson, The Rose-Tinted Menagerie

“Things just happen. Reasons and lessons are illusions of hindsight.”
― Meetali Kalia

“Thus, because Christian morality leaves animals out of account (of this, more later on), they are at once outlawed in philosophical morals; they are mere “things,” mere means to any ends whatsoever. They can therefore be used for vivisection, hunting, coursing, bullfights, and horse racing, and can be whipped to death as they struggle along with heavy carts of stone. Shame on such a morality that is worthy of pariahs, chandalas, and mlechchhas, and that fails to recognize the eternal essence that exists in every living thing, and shines forth with inscrutable insignificance from all eyes that see the sun! But that morality knows and respects only its own worthy species, whose characteristic reason [Vernunft] is the condition on which a being can be an object of moral consideration and respect.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Basis of Morality

“Peter Batten comments on the educational value of zoos: 'Whether anyone derives lasting benefit by seeing wild animals from other countries in enclosures which inhibit their natural behavior must be evaluated without bias. Should one learn that the chimpanzee, for example, is a neurotic humanoid that cadges food from humans, and throws tantrums and excreta should this not materialize? Or that the orangutan, which [who] by nature seldom descends to the soft forest floor, is a pathetic bundle of matted red fur in the corner of a tiled cell? Must the alert, gregarious California sea lion be represented by an animal, half blinded from filthy unsalted water, that [who] spends its life begging for rotten fish?'
All this said, I actually think zoos overwhelmingly succeed at teaching visitors about nonhumans. But the question remains: what are they teaching?”
― Derrick Jensen, Thought to Exist in the Wild: Awakening from the Nightmare of Zoos