Unexpected Bigotry
So, I have been playing a virtual zoo game. It's kind of neat in that it contributes a bit of money to help real animals, and as your virtual zoo is growing you end up finding out about all sorts of animals you probably haven't heard about before, since there are a lot of species in the game. Among the features, you can breed your endangered animals to help create more. You can also release some into the wild (which does involve training them to be able to handle that), and you can rescue endangered animals that are in need. It's all virtual, of course, but those are some of the game mechanics.
So, they added a new animal, but for rescue only. You can't buy it, and you can't breed to create it. They added jaglions, which are a jaguar-lion crossbreed. You can't breed to create them, because they generally aren't something that should be deliberately created, but hybrids do sometimes happen, and they can be in need of rescuing. The example jaglions the game mentioned were created in a zoo where a jaguar and a lion knew each other in kittenhood. Attempts were made to separate them as they grew, but the animals became depressed when apart, and it was seen as better to let them stay together than to separate them. Thus were created a pair of jaglion twins. These things happen.
One of the people who plays commented that she would not rescue any jaglions, because she feels it is unethical and she wouldn't want the reputation of her zoo harmed by people thinking she'd create jaglions. The creator of the game tried to explain that they are rescue-only and that the idea behind that is that whether or not there should be jaglions, they do happen sometimes, and that these animals can be in need of rescuing and good care. He asked if you saw a pure-bred tiger and a liger as sideshow exhibits not being well-cared for, would you rescue only the tiger and leave the liger to suffer? Her response was that she would rescue both and euthanize the liger.
I am kind of appalled. In fact, the game creator responded that he hoped that were that happening in real life organizations would step in to prevent her from euthanizing the liger. She later commented about the importance of keeping the breeding pool of endangered species pure. But that is actually irrelevant for two reasons, first, you can rescue the liger or jaglion, give it a home, and not breed it. And second, the hybrids tend to be sterile anyway, so they're not changing the gene pool of the endangered animals.
Well, she is free to play the game as she chooses, and I'm glad it's just virtual. Plus, you don't get an option to kill any of your animals in the game (it's aiming to be fairly friendly to most ages, so it sacrifices realism by having their be no death. You monitor your releases into the wild to see if they all survive, but they always all survive. Also, animals do not age or die naturally. Given all that, they certainly don't let you kill them). But I'm really disturbed that there is someone who would rather see a healthy animal killed than given a decent home, because she feels that the animal should not have been born in the first place. It's already born, so it just seems so obvious to me that now the right thing to do is to help it. I could sort of see the argument of not helping it and funneling resources to other animals, but to rescue it and then kill it... that's not even a rescue. It's just sad.
So, they added a new animal, but for rescue only. You can't buy it, and you can't breed to create it. They added jaglions, which are a jaguar-lion crossbreed. You can't breed to create them, because they generally aren't something that should be deliberately created, but hybrids do sometimes happen, and they can be in need of rescuing. The example jaglions the game mentioned were created in a zoo where a jaguar and a lion knew each other in kittenhood. Attempts were made to separate them as they grew, but the animals became depressed when apart, and it was seen as better to let them stay together than to separate them. Thus were created a pair of jaglion twins. These things happen.
One of the people who plays commented that she would not rescue any jaglions, because she feels it is unethical and she wouldn't want the reputation of her zoo harmed by people thinking she'd create jaglions. The creator of the game tried to explain that they are rescue-only and that the idea behind that is that whether or not there should be jaglions, they do happen sometimes, and that these animals can be in need of rescuing and good care. He asked if you saw a pure-bred tiger and a liger as sideshow exhibits not being well-cared for, would you rescue only the tiger and leave the liger to suffer? Her response was that she would rescue both and euthanize the liger.
I am kind of appalled. In fact, the game creator responded that he hoped that were that happening in real life organizations would step in to prevent her from euthanizing the liger. She later commented about the importance of keeping the breeding pool of endangered species pure. But that is actually irrelevant for two reasons, first, you can rescue the liger or jaglion, give it a home, and not breed it. And second, the hybrids tend to be sterile anyway, so they're not changing the gene pool of the endangered animals.
Well, she is free to play the game as she chooses, and I'm glad it's just virtual. Plus, you don't get an option to kill any of your animals in the game (it's aiming to be fairly friendly to most ages, so it sacrifices realism by having their be no death. You monitor your releases into the wild to see if they all survive, but they always all survive. Also, animals do not age or die naturally. Given all that, they certainly don't let you kill them). But I'm really disturbed that there is someone who would rather see a healthy animal killed than given a decent home, because she feels that the animal should not have been born in the first place. It's already born, so it just seems so obvious to me that now the right thing to do is to help it. I could sort of see the argument of not helping it and funneling resources to other animals, but to rescue it and then kill it... that's not even a rescue. It's just sad.