Fun, yet sad....

Over the weekend my husband and I took one of our nephews to a place called The Living Planet Aquarium. None of us had ever been there before, so it was a new experience for all three of us. They had all sorts of tanks with all sorts of fish and marine life in them, a lot of which most of us would never have the chance to see up close if it weren't for said tanks. They had tanks full of fish and other aquatic life native to our state, as well as the ocean (which we live nowhere near). They also had a small penguin exhibit with a handful of penguins that were very happy to see the humans staring at them through the glass. They kept jumping in the water and coming right up to the glass to stare at everyone, it was pretty cute. There was a small enclosure that had 4 or 5 sting rays in it that the public was allowed to touch "with two fingers only" they were just swimming around in there, one kept coming up and swimming up on the side so that his "wing" was sticking out of the water so that people could touch it. I was the only one out of the three of us that was brave enough to touch one. (I had to work up the courage after a little while, but that is beyond the point!) Just in case you are wondering, they feel slimy! So here is the sad part. The majority of the animals were in tanks that were way too small for them. Two examples that I can think of off the top of my head are: there was an octopus (who by the way was so NOT happy with my husband when he came close to the tank holding his camera! The octopus immediately took a defensive stance and started changing colors. He definitely was putting my husband in his place!) that was in a narrow tall tank that mostly only allowed him to climb up and down the glass, next to that there was a HUGE lobster, the biggest I have ever seen and he was almost as big as the tank he was in....so I questioned, how is he supposed to move around in that thing? So I am torn, it is fun for me to be able to see wildlife that I would normally never be able to see, and get (somewhat) up close with them. But at the same time the small places they confine them to border on abuse, and when we go there and pay to get in, we are basically supporting the abuse. So here I am torn in two directions.....loving being able to "visit" the wildlife, but hating that they are confined into small areas and stared at (and most likely traumatized by the banging on the glass by small children) all day every day. The animal lover in me both loves and despises these types of places. I love to go to them, yet always feel guilty afterwards for supporting the trapping and confining of animals for human amusement. It's a vicious cycle and I am not sure how to end it.