Before I even start on this one I feel a warning is necessary, I will ramble on....

        Why animals? I don't have a clue. Its not that I haven't delved deep into my psyche searching for lost answers, I have. The forays I've made into my mind have brought fourth little useful information on this topic. The best answer I've come up with is - that's the way I am. I've had numerous relationships with humans, all nice people (well most of them) but it just didn't click. The relationships I've had with animals have been the most rewarding experiences in my life.

        My childhood and subsequent adolescence reveals frustratingly little as a possible cause. I was loved and encouraged as a child, the closest I ever came to abuse was seeing my father drunk once. My extended family of aunts, uncles, and grandparents were all pleasant people to be around. My social contact was not limited either, there were many people my own age around. Sex was not a subject of taboo, it was discussed honestly.

        I can remember being captivated by animals as a child (five or six years old). Even my first thoughts of a sexual nature were of animals. I had already experienced sex with an animal before I even knew the words society uses to label it. I was in high school when I saw my first 8mm film depicting a woman with a collie, it was nothing new to me. My virginity had been lost many times over before my first sexual encounter with a woman. I kept my sexuality private because I knew that most people did not think the way I do. I don't understand the attraction to animals any better than a straight heterosexual understands their draw to the opposite sex.

        What makes some of us zoos? Is it genetic? Perhaps somewhere in the DNA strand is a recessive gene that when mixed with unknown environmental factors causes it. Alcoholism and homosexuality are thought to be this way, why not zoo. Or maybe the cause is at the source of all life and for unknown reasons the universe instills in some a spirit that has more in common with the four-legged than with other two-legged. Hell, maybe aliens experimented with me (yeah, right).

        Modern society feels a need to explore and to explain, but some things just don't seem to have an answer. So to finally answer the original question "Why be a zoo?", I can only say "Why not?".

by Tache