Animals in the City (by Grace Tuisku)

 

The city has long been regarded as the pinnacle of progress and humanity. It has been seen as an environment in which human beings thrived, developed and the wilderness was kept at bay. As a result there has been a growing disconnect from nature, as people grow more comfortable in their controlled urbanised environment. There are few animals present, and those that are, have been highly domesticated such as pets, or trained and controlled such as those held at the zoos. This separation causes many problems, for instance younger generations are often distanced from the production of their food and the animals that they eat, as well as being unaware of the important roles that wild animals play in the ecosystems that support us all. However, this arrangement may be the only way in which humans and animals can both survive. With people contained in a high-density environment, they are leaving larger areas of land uninhabited and free for animal populations. In this sense cities are much better for the animal kingdom then the suburban life, which, especially in Australia, is often seen as being more connected to nature. This is contradictory to the opinion held by Wolch (1998) who believes that there should be no segregation between human and non-human life.

 

As human environments have become more urbanised over time, the land has ceased to be an appropriate habitat for the animals that once inhabited the area. As a result of this, the populations have either died out or migrated to more suitable areas. This behaviour was paralleled by the human populations who migrated into the cities due to them becoming a prosperous habitat for people, with many opportunities to grow and develop. The absence of animals in the city has had many benefits for the human population. These benefits can be seen when a developed city is compared to a city in a developing country which often has high populations of stray dogs and cats, rats, and in some places cows or monkeys. These animals have the potential to spread disease through fleas, faeces or bites. These urban animals pose a considerable threat to the human populations in these areas, which is why they are often reduced or removed once as city becomes more developed. However the absence of animals in the city has also caused a disconnection between urban populations and nature, therefore people are less likely to be concerned with environmental issues or feel the need to curtail there behaviours which have negative environmental consequences.

 

Even though animals are generally considered to be absent in the city environment, there are three main ways in which animals are present in the city;

1) As pets

2) As pests

3) As education and entertainment in the zoos.

 

Pets are becoming increasingly common and important to individuals, it could be argued that this desire to have pets is the modern humans way of fulfilling the innate need to be close to animals. However this evolutionary need has evolved to the point that our pets are now also city dwellers and are reflective of the environment and lifestyle of the place in which they live. For example many suburban dogs regularly wear jumpers in the winter as the have been breed to have suitable characteristics for city living such as small size and non shedding hair rather than for survival in the wild. Wolch (1998) argues that the increasing popularity of pets is detrimental for native animals, and while this is true for outer suburban families, the inner city environment in this instance is possibly better for having pets as it increases the separation between native and domesticated animals. The presence of animals in zoos can be quite controversial issues as many people are uncomfortable with the idea of holding all these animals, particularly the larger and more intelligent ones in captivity. However zoos play an extremely important role regarding the education of urban populations and counteracting the disconnect from nature that can occur in the city. By allowing people to visit and have a personal interaction with these animals, the people are more likely to be concerned for the wellbeing of the rest of the species and be more inclined to be environmentally considerate and aware of their actions. Many zoos such as the Melbourne zoo have lots of information about how our behaviours impact the animals that they have at the zoo, for instance the presence of palm oil awareness posters in the orang-utan enclosure.

 

Wolch’s (1998) idea of the zoopolis is highly optimistic and extremely unpractical in the modern day city. The idea of the cohabitation of animals and humans would in all likelihood make the environment unsafe for all parties. The animals would also need to be semi controlled or domesticated in order to ensure they’re not an immediate threat to human safety.

 

The urban environment is one in which is the human population can thrive and develop. While it indeed has had negative impacts on the surrounding animal world, these problems will not be fixed by forced cohabitation of humans and animals. Instead other programs can be implemented so as to bridge the gap between these two worlds. For instance farm field trips are a regular part of Australian primary school in which children are able to be up close with many of the animals that provides them food. Also zoos can be used to keep city dwellers engaged with the natural environment so that disconnection can be avoided.