18 reasons to take your kid to this zoo

I’m going to the zoo-oo-oo. How about you-ou-ou? I’m going to the zo-oo-oo. You can come to-oo-oo.

Remember that song? It was far from my childhood anthem. I think we went to the zoo. Maybe once on vacation? We were not big into zoos. I, especially, have been very (too) sensitive and empathetic when it comes to animals from a very young age, and never seemed to grow out of it. I've stopped in Paris streets to untangle pigeons from trash and regularly tell people off for feeding inappropriate foods to ducks. Yes, I'm that lady.

When I was 17, the summer after graduating from high school, one of my best friends insisted we go to the San Francisco Zoo before I moved away for college, because I told her I had never been. Apparently, that zoo featured in many of her core memories, and she couldn't believe I'd grown up in the Bay Area and never been. 

I remember the drive up, but I honestly have no recollection of what we saw or did inside the zoo.  I guess I wasn't too scarred for life by what we saw. 

Fast-forward about 13 happily zoo-free years. My husband's parents live in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, just a hop, skip and a jump from the jardin des plantes and it's infamous ménagerie. Previously, I associated the place, which I had never visited, with royal collections of animals said royals had no business collecting IMHO and, of course, with the depressing Rilke poem, Der Panther.  

Simply put, I felt quite strongly that animals shouldn't be in zoos, and certainly not in the heart of one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Perhaps not strongly enough to dedicate my life to protesting them, but enough that I had regularly used this debate with my language and linguistics students at the university conveniently located across the street from my now-in-law's apartment, visible from my husband's childhood bedroom window. The world is small. 

Parenting logic

I had no intention of taking my kid to the zoo. I had no desire to inflict that on myself, so I clearly delegated that to my husband, so he could carry on the tradition where he regularly visited the ménagerie as a child, just like his father and grandfather before him, if he so desired. And he did. He asked for an annual pass for his 31st birthday, so now here I was financially supporting the zoo (my kid got in for free as a child under age 3). And he took my kid. And my in-laws took my kid. And my kid loved the zoo. And I haven't changed my position, but those debates with my students always did have two sides, and I was prepared to advocate for either to get them talking and thinking. 

Zoos are horrible for the mental health of most animals. But some endangered species still exist, often thanks to zoo-driven programs. With my students, I always brought up the California Condor, of which only 22 individuals remained in 1982. The Recovery Program, initially at the San Diego Zoo, involved captive breeding to bolster the population, and there are now 500 individuals in the wild, though the species remains critically endangered (IUCN Red List). Is this a net positive? 

Living through the current mass extinction event, I can't help but think more and more that anything humans can do to prevent the extinction of the species that we as a species are destroying is probably worthwhile. Prohibiting poaching? Yes! Protecting habitats? Yes! Breeding in zoos? Okay, I guess...

Sell-out?

I now have my own annual pass to the ménagerie (and the rest of the museums at the jardin des plantes along with it) and I love to take my kids. And I always make a point to show them on the maps on the signs where the animal is supposed to live, and whether they are endangered and why, and what people should do to protect them.

And I appreciate that the zoo includes all this information and more on the signs.

If there are going to be animals in captivity in the heart of a city on a different continent from their natural habitat, I want them to be in the best conditions possible (thankfully, the large animals who suffered most are no longer housed at the ménagerie) and I want their lives to have been cruelty-free and meaningful.

What does that mean for a red panda or an orangutan? Protesters regularly denounce the treatment of Nenette, one of the ménagerie's most famous inhabitants. The zoo, as a response, is finally renovating the orangutan's enclosure, investing over 2 million euros to create a much larger and better adapted space. Donations flooded in, well over the zoo's initial target. Money talks, and people love Nenette and her little orangutan family. And if people are willing to donate money to build her a new home, maybe soon they'll be willing to completely give up palm oil and stop the destruction of the natural habitat of her larger orangutan family so they don't need to be protected in zoos. Would that make Nenette happy? 

The ménagerie in Paris falls under the mandate of the Ministry of Education, and rightly so. It should be a place of learning, both zoological and ethical. 

La Garenne

Here in Switzerland, I finally discovered a "zoo" I can really get behind. I take my kids there and encourage others to do the same without any of the qualms I have about zoos generally. La Garenne , or "warren", in French designating the wooded natural habitat where wild rabbits burrow, is an "animal park" with an animal hospital. It is the place to call when you find injured wild animals in the area.

The animals you can see there are all locals. They are the same species you might find on a long back-country hike or even in the fields nearby at dawn or dusk. There are no animals imported from other continents for the sake of spectacle. If and when they are capable of surviving, they are released back into the wild. Some of the species you cannot see at certain periods of the year, because the priority is supporting the reproduction of endangered species and respecting the animals, not just pleasing visitors (and consequently, the place is often struggling financially). 

This place is probably my number one recommendation for people visiting the region. The bus ride up provides beautiful views of the region, there is a great playground and  a lovely café with a charming chef. It's 100% worth the gamble of a stroller nap to spend the day there.