They look dead, lying on a reinforced concrete floor behind thick bars. A dozen tigers languish in a cramped cage, waiting for their turn, for someone to come and get them so they can pose next to tourists who pay a handful of dollars for a souvenir photo with the wild beast. Do tourists realize that these animals are wasting away in horrible prisons? Do they know that their feet never tread the lush grass of a jungle, but rather the coldness of a cement floor on which they try to sleep somehow, to pass the time, to perhaps forget their condition as captive animals? These tigers photographed by Kirsten Luce in a zoo in Thailand illustrate the tragic reality of a trade that couldn’t care less about animal welfare and doesn’t hesitate to mistreat magnificent creatures to make a pitiful profit.
Dolphins
The photographer didn’t settle for simply making this observation. She manages to reveal all the absurdity of this practice and shows us how humans not only harm the animal, but then are capable of ridiculing it and taking away its dignity as well. Such is the case of a show in Russia in which the trainer, Grant Ibragimov, exhibits a huge brown bear dressed in a purple tutu. The beauty and the intrinsic power of the beast vanish under the pathos of the situation and the whole sight of it makes you want to cry while wondering how, in the 21st century, such cruel absurdity is still possible. Further away, also in Russia, Kirsten Luce discovers how some marine mammals such as dolphins are abused, dying after no more than a few months in a water park and then immediately replaced illegally by the owners.
Sinister joy
This journey to hell doesn’t end there; what strikes the photographer above all, which she manages to capture so well, is the blindness of the tourists who enjoy this type of spectacle, those groups of people who don’t hesitate to have their picture taken in front of a wounded animal with no apparent regard for its health. We see their faces filled with a kind of sinister joy, thrilled to be able to take a selfie next to a magnificent beast with no concern for its state. When viewing Kirsten Luce’s report, one may perhaps feel that the intention is laudable: showing rare animals up close and highlighting their beauty. But one may also feel that the method is deplorable and that it contributes to the murder of wild animals.
By Jean-Baptiste Gauvin
Kirsten Luce, “The Dark Side of Wildlife Tourism”
August 31 – September 15, 2019
Église des Dominicains, 6 Rue François Rabelais, 66000 Perpignan
