A sad face!

I really wasn't sure if I should post this photo or not - I was in a real quandary about it. Went to visit Monkey World today, a place that I had been interested in visiting because of the conservation work they do for the animals. I was looking forward to going, but whilst I was there it sudden;y dawned on me about places like this.

This particular chimp caught my eye because he seemed the most unhappy. Sucking his thumb ever now and then and sitting thoughtfully through the window. His face seemed so sad and made me think about the horrible life it once had. This same chimp about an hour later got really agitated by this piece of metal wire that went round the edge of the enclosure. He tried everything to get rid of this metal wire (us knowing it was never going to happen) and getting really aggressive at it, shedding boxes, plastic buckets etc trying to get this wire free. This became a source of amusement of the crowd who were filming him and laughing at him. These bursts of aggression were followed by time spent on his house looking sadly through the glass.

This is when it dawned on me, although this is a rescue centre and a place to rehabilitate these monkeys, there life is still behind glass and fences, enclosed from the 'real world'. After hearing what some of these chimps have been through in a previous life it did make me sad, that although their life is somewhat better - they are cared for, loved, kept warm and dry and well fed. They are still in captivity. I know they would never survive the wild now, we were all still there taking photos and gazing with wonderment at these animals. Many of these animals were used for photographic purposes abroad, often chained up and used to entice tourists to have their photos taken with them, then their life was awful out of work hours.

I then realised I was nothing short of one of those tourists - taking photos for my own pleasure. Although, this seems rather hypocritical posting a photo of something that I am have slowly been blipping against, I wanted to highlight to others how I feel and what dawned on me today. It did make me think about zoo and wildlife parks in general, should animals be in captivity? Are they happy in their enclosures? Should I be contributing to this by taking their photos? It has left me in a real moral dilemma - I love animals and wildlife. But if I loved them should I be visiting places like this - that may hale the conservation? Or should I avoid them altogether?

Although this visit has left me thinking I don't want the blip world to think its been a miserable day. Today and this weekend has been fantastic. The museum visit yesterday was followed by an impromptu evening with our new neighbours, sitting in their garden around the chimnea, drinking wine and having a good old natter. We were there for hours.

Then today we went to Monkey World, drove round to Lulworth Cove and had a picnic and marvelled at the view. Then drove round to Durdle Door and marvelled at that view too - it was stunning. SO another amazing day and I can feel my stress levels start to reduce.

Have had a brilliant weekend and hope you all have too.