Gorilla matters at Melbourne: matters of domestic violence?
This assertion of unprecedented violence from Otana could not be stopped by zoo authorities, as they felt they could not intervene in the battle between Otana and Julia or remove her from the enclosure. They feared that Julia would face even more violence from Otana, once she was re-introduced into Otana's harem after recovery or if they obstructed him, once the two Gorillas were on their own again. It seems that it was not allowed according to Gorilla social laws for Julia to leave the enclosure, even after an attack by Otana, without his permission.
The event of the enclosure took place in front of some primary school children, who were initially excited by the sudden action within the Gorilla quarters, as the Silver back repeatedly pounced on Julia, even as she tried to run from him, slapping her viciously, loudly and violently, during which time she began to bleed from a gash on her lower back. At this the watching primary school children began to feel increasingly distressed. Julia had spent over a decade at Melbourne zoo and was well loved, while Otana has traveled from the UK in 2013 to assume the role of a breeder and alpha male within the Gorilla enclosure. PETA has blamed Melbourne zoo authorities for not being able to provide ideal conditions for animal interactions, while animal psychologists have issued statements to the effect of how murderers are the most unassuming even in human society. Zoo keepers who knew Julia well are in shock and undergoing counseling themselves at what has taken place.
After the assault, Julia was found to be unwell as she spent the night in a separate little heated cave away from the group, in seclusion from the other Gorillas, before she was removed from the enclosure on Saturday morning by zoo authorities, after which she was discovered to have sustained severe trauma and complications at having been so viciously beaten up. She died on Sunday. Otana has since, been segregated from the rest of the female group and veterinary psychologists feel that if he has to be reintegrated as an alpha male, he may have to beat up many more to assert his dominance. He may be on the other hand ousted by the collective of females in the group if this violence becomes unacceptable. Time will tell Otana's future.
I know lots of shit happens in this world including the sudden death of beautiful minds. Some are mourned, while some are not important enough to be remembered. Others go on to make snide remarks about animals gaining human rights, in a world where humans are treated worse than animals. I accept these paradoxes and ironies.
And yet, tired, lonely and exhausted with society as its picks at its own brains, we, or I may look stupidly towards nature as a relief from the world's numbing cruelty. And it always surprises me and kicks me in the ass to find out how most of society's cruelty starts with and in nature.
We would be crazy not to see parallels to domestic abuse and murder in this sad story between Otana and Julia in Melbourne zoo, even as we come to realize how our cozy little constructed families and homes exactly resemble these zoo enclosures, where no outsider may interfere with the violence perpetuated inside, even as they watch the free for all from outside. We all hear the sounds of slaps and yells and crying from the next door flat but we just turn up the TV volume one more notch.
If it comes into the open, we rush to our windows looking on first with interest....and then with growing distress....and finally with apathy. Some of us call the police or our own version of the zoo authorities. We comfort themselves that any interference with the males and the powerful on our behalf, will only bring down more violence on those, who are weaker and ultimately dependent on their mercy.
It escapes none of us that our law mechanisms are nothing short of zoo authorities who only manage our private lives from spilling out on the roads, as it only tortures those of us who dare to report our experiences with violence publicly.....so that private violence may continue unabated. Yes, many people die as psychologists explain away social reasons for violence. Yes, the enclosure is no longer natural....as it used to be in the forest, where Gorillas used to naturally interact.
Yes society has changed and the alpha male is frustrated and vents his rage.
We all must after all hide so much behind our biological-ness. Or our crimes against society can so easily be explained away through biology and our trap in nature. We can catch hold of someone and simply rape her, or we can catch hold of a Dalit boy and kill him for having a certain ring tone on his phone or we can tear up a three year child from the inside and blame it all: either on them or on society or on the zoo authorities and their corruption. So much of our old values are lost. The raam rajya of the forest.
Or why do we not follow some anti-secularists and blame modernity itself? That ways, we can follow in the path of PETA and blame the nature of the Melbourne zoo. It is the hegemony of the zoo you see, that produced Otana's violence and made him thrash Julia to death.
And after all it was Julia's fault too. Spending her last dying night separated and unattended by the rest of the group in a separate cave of her own. Beaten up, bleeding and punished.
Julia died. Many women also die without having any claims to justice.
They don't have beautiful bodies or minds. They are not even considered human.
But of course we must sympathize with Otana.
Firstly because he is frustrated in an unnatural and changing environment that has hampered his mental growth and increased his frustration. Secondly because we as humans may not judge animals or dare to see ourselves reflected in him. We must share the white man's colonial burden that can only allow us to 'other' those we hold colonized or captive; we must never identify with them! If they are not already Gorillas, we must turn them into monkeys or primitives or justify their violence as culture, to exonerate ourselves as un-involved spectators and learners. Our own image of remaining sanctimonious and politically un-involved matters so much more to us than the hundreds and thousands of dying Julias all around us.
We must constantly juxtapose Otana's plight of how it is HIS primary tragedy to be used as a breeder and abused simultaneously as a murderer, as if this was not Julia's exact plight too. Had the murdered Julia not shared the same situation? Had she not lost her natural environment of the forest and learned to adapt to the change of the zoo enclosure? Was she herself not a breeder? Living in the frustratingly small and alien atmosphere of the zoo herself, was she not following Gorilla social rules at the same time?
But we must exonerate Otana at all costs.
He must never undergo hormonal castration.
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