Encaged animals and our outrage

Over the last couple of weeks, two water fountains of viral outrage have been curiously synchronised.

Harambe the gorilla was shot dead by zookeepers after a child managed to infiltrate his enclosure. Cue social media shock and outrage. The suitability of the mother and the family were all held up to scrutiny, with calls for prosecution being klaxoned at high volume.

Likewise, Johnny Depp has been encaged within an enclosure of the celebrity zoo and left there to peddle his rackety, faux-bohemian, Hunter Thompson-wannabe schtick to all those who stop and goggle and him.

He has been accused by his estranged wife Amber Heard of being mentally and physically abusive towards her, including acting very much like a wild animal with a magnum of champagne.

Both encaged animals have been made victims of a social media storm that is as reductive about its subject as it is morally misguided.

Individual cases such as the death of Harambe, and Cecil the lion, serve as useful lightning conductors for us to channel our collective rage at animal cruelties. How dare those vile humans destroy such beautiful creatures?!, we cry.

(By the way, what has happened to that American dentist Walter Palmer? Have animal welfare zealots strapped him to his own surgery chair to perform sadistic orthodontic experiments on him?)

We repost viral memes and sign online petitions about these events, but the truth is we still cannot shake the underlying belief that animals are entirely subject to our own superiority as a species. We hate on a rich dentist because of his recognisably deplorable human traits, but we turn a blind eye to the mass extinction of animal life because we know our own lifestyles are to blame.

According to estimates, the rapid loss of species is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate, and is being termed the ‘sixth mass extinction event’. This is being exacerbated, if not outright caused, by human behaviour-led global warming and habitat depletion. And yet there is silence as we prefer to get enraged about a mother from Cincinnati…

In the case of Johnny Depp; his famous friends and former wife were quick to come to his defence, with not-so-subtle insinuations and questioning as to the malicious ulterior motives of Heard.

Just like endangered gorillas and lions, we hoist megastars like Depp up on the iconic pedestal, unable to countenance the fact that as human animals like the rest of us they are perfectly capable of being flawed and liable to do bad things.

Just as it is quite possible for someone to fabricate lies about abuse in an attempt to extract revenge or reward, it’s also possible for them to be the victim of domestic abuse. Just as it’s possible for a megastar to be the victim of blackmail and lies, it’s also possible for them to be a flawed human who sometimes abuses his partner.

Either way, it’s always interesting to watch the tune to which the fountains dance…