Elizabeth Thomas: Author, Scientist, Sadist.

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas is a loathsome individual. Her book, Tribe Of The Tiger, which purports to examine the interconnectedness of domestic cats to the large predatory cats found in nature, begins pleasantly enough, relating a fairly common story concerning her and her husband watching the flight of several deer, who it is revealed were being pursued by their cat.
All well, and good. Prosaic, episodic, personal in that palliative way of certain cat fanciers.

The problem arises later, in chapters reserved for the Circus and Zoo trade. Thomas proceeds to expound on the virtues and benefits afforded large cats kept in this way, rigorously (often ruthlessly) trained, confined to infinitesimally small cages, forced into theatre. She feels that this is just, and apt, and perfectly acceptable, and goes yet further relating that, in essence, these creatures are of so little quality as individuals that their confinement and coercion is of no moral question.
This is untenable, and entirely without sense, to say little of what we know of the vastly complex nature of these beings. Worse, it is dangerously misleading, for, though anyone of any moral awareness should know better, there will inevitably be a few whose perceptions, whose guilty consciences will be absolved by such statements, coming as they do from an (unbelievably) established authority.

It speaks to the overweening ignorance that persists in certain quarters of society, crucially, to the self imposed ignorance of these people. The least among us can see that a being whose very sense of self requires vastness, freedom, and a responsibility to it's own drives, should never be imprisoned for our sadistic amusement, and yet every year, hordes of beings gather to watch. Worse is that people bring children to these diabolical exhibitions, whose perceptions will be perverted and become muddy. People do not go to these places because they despise the animals in question, they do not attend in hopes of seeing a majestic creature suffer, often it is their great admiration that draws their attention. But it is a kind of deeply held self deception that allows such hypocrisy. It is little different than individuals who claim enormous affection for deer or bear, or sailfish who proceed to murder them and mount their dessicated bodies on their walls. There is little difference, but at least the hunted have the benfit of death, to end their torments. Exhibition animals do not have this luxury, and if we recognize that death would be better than the life they endure, certainly this should speak to its awfulness.
We live in a world rife with moral compromise. It is undeniably true that few of us have not run counter to our own supposedly intractable beliefs at one time or another. We are all guilty of something, and yet we persist, we endure, we carry on and make efforts to amend our occasional failings. But it needs noting, that these events arise by our own choices, our own actions, they are essentially intrinsic exceptions in our characters, and thus we are responsible for them. These animals however, these incarcerated beings, do not have choice, they are stripped of all individuality the moment they are confined. We may navigate our own slippery moral road as we see fit, it is our right as sentient beings, yet it is not our right to strip these inalienable statutes from another, be they human, tiger or toad. Our rights end where another life exists, and to maintain our willful ignorance of our treatment of fellow beings as a whole is no different than were we to accept a Dachau as "entertainment".