Heather du Plessis-Allan: There's hypocrisy in the outrage about the treatment of the kiwi in Miami - Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

A lot of Kiwis are going to be relieved to hear that that Miami zoo has immediately called off any more public encounters with the kiwi bird they've got over there.

The kiwi's been put back into darkness, they say. It's now out of the fluorescent lights it was under and it's not going to be cuddled and stroked by visitors anymore. The zoo has apologised for doing this, saying they are deeply sorry and they acknowledge they've made a huge mistake.

And I've got to be honest, like many people, I'm stoked by that. I really personally hated seeing the cruelty, whether it was intended or not, in that video where people were handling that kiwi.

Which brings me to this though- there is a bit of hypocrisy here from us, isn't there? 

I mean, you and I understand that a kiwi shouldn't be handled like that, because kiwis are special to us and they're native to New Zealand and we understand that they're endangered. We've taken on the responsibility to do absolutely everything we can to help them survive.

When we see other people in other countries not understanding that and not doing the same thing, it's really weird for us, isn't it? 

But aren't we doing exactly the same thing to endangered animals from other countries in this very country right now?

I mean, I don't want to sound like a massive hand-wringer, but you can't have a problem with the treatment of that kiwi and then happily go along to Auckland Zoo to look at lions that are locked up in enclosures that are nowhere near as big as the 1000 square kilometres they would roam in the wild.

And you can not be at all comfortable going to Wellington Zoo to watch people fiddle with tarantulas like that's normal for a tarantula.

And right now in Auckland Zoo, honestly the saddest thing that's happening to animals in this country is that Burma the elephant is completely by herself. She has been for ages.

We all know that elephants are like humans, they get stressed and anxious when they're lonely. 

To be fair to us as humans, zoos have been around for such a long time- they've been around since the Victorian era- that we've just gotten used to this.

I don't think a lot of us stop to think about whether zoos are actually nice to animals or not. Whether this is normal or not.

I'll tell you what, think about it a little bit, please.

Because if you're offended by the treatment of that kiwi in Miami- not in its homeland, not in its natural habitat, being handled by people it when shouldn't be- next time you go to a zoo, ask yourself if that's not the same thing that we're doing to the lions and elephants and cheetahs and tarantulas and monkeys in New Zealand.

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