PRISONERS IN WAR: ZOOS AND ZOO ANIMALS DURING HUMAN CONFLICT 1870-1947

Animals are sentient beings capable of many of the same feelings experienced by humans. They mourn a loss, they feel love and loyalty, and they experience fear. During wars and conflicts, fear is a prevailing emotion among humans, who worry for their well-being. Animals, too, feel fear during human conflicts, and that fear is magnified when those animals are caged. History has shown the victimization of zoo animals during military conflicts. Zoo animals already lack agency over their own lives, and in times of war, they are seen as a liability. From the Siege of Paris to recent Israel-Hamas conflicts in Gaza, zoo animals have been unwitting victims of man’s inhumanity to man. Mahatma Gandhi once wrote, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.†If this sentiment is true, most nations have progressed little in the 150 years covered in this thesis