Sunday 17 July 2011

Poor Nenette

Poor Nenette.
Life stretches.
Life doesn’t change, only continues.
Three mates.
All gone.
Four babies.
Three gone.
One left.
A potential mate in the minds of those who keep her.
So drugs are given to make sure she does not have a fifth baby with her son.
Yoghurt and tea with contraceptives hidden in the yoghurt.

She mixes the tea into the yoghurt as if to clean the pot.
She unscrews the lid just like a human.
She puts her chin on her hand and looks despairingly out through the glass, looking just how you imagine you would look if in her place.
A lot of visitors comment on her breasts.
Nearly as many comment on the big lumpy part under her chin.
Gerard, her longest serving keeper says this part is to make a loud noise if necessary, but that generally, Orang Utans do not make noise.
Unlike children, who shout and screech outside her enclosure while she looks on with quiet dignity.
Poor Nenette

5 comments:

Jenny Woolf said...

Oh dear, this is sad. I hate to see animals in zoos.

jabblog said...

Stunning, Sarah - what do we do in the name of procreation?? Poor girl - how very sad - a baby with her son - I believe it's called 'line breeding' - very dodgy. Look at the problems created in 'pedigree dogs'. So, so sad.

jabblog said...

Perhaps IVF is the answer for a female with strong maternal instincts? I don't know the right solution - I just think she looks so sad - too many lost pregnancies, maybe. Sad!!

angela recada said...

So very sad.

Noelle Clearwater said...

I think that it is very hard on animals to be penned in at a zoo. It is so entirely unnatural. Sad for her also to lose all her babies. I think that animals mourn the loss of their young just as we do. we give them so little credit. Thanks for your compassion for Nenette.
xo,
Noelle