Mass deaths of rare croc in India

At least 21 endangered crocodile-like gharials have been found dead over the past three days in a river in northern India, wildlife officials say.

Tests are now being carried out on the water for the presence of any liver-damaging toxins.

Some experts believe the gharials are unable to cope with the change in their water habitat when they leave the zoo.

Other factors such as fishing and pollution of the river by industrial effluents are thought to have contributed to the decline in the number of the reptiles.

The obvious conclusions would be DON'T POISON THE WATER, AND DON'T PUT ANIMALS IN ZOOS.

Let's just talk about zoos quickly, because I would hope that I do not need to explain why poisoning water is a no no. What are zoos? The displacement and imprisonment of animals, which ultimately tarnishes the animals ability to live naturally in its own habitat--and for those animals who are never released back into the wild, they generally live a heavily restricted and sub-par life, which is many times abusive.

Why do we have zoos? Because the general collective is so self-serving that it would rather have nature captured, compartmentalized, and locked up, just so families can walk by, remark on an animal, and leave.

That is so selfish: lock something up, ruin its natural existence, and disrupt an ecosystem so I can look at it on an occasional whim.

If you want to see a fucking animal, google it.

It goes without saying that human intervention to stop a species from going extinct is wonderful and completely different. In that instance, the purpose is to save, not lock-and-gawk.