Hachiko Speaks: Lives Behind Bars
Today I saw a drama of zoos. Not out of curiosity... more like a silent pain in my chest.

From the outside, everything looked cheerful. The colorful signs, the laughing children, the clicking of cameras. But I looked closer. I looked through the gaps in the hedges, into their eyes. And I found silence. Not the kind you hear, but the kind you feel.

A monkey was looking out of his cage, unhappy. He had climbed a metal pole, not a tree. The children were laughing, but he was not laughing. He was not playing. He had forgotten what freedom was like.

A great elephant paced in slow circles, chained in a space far too small. In the wild, she would roam for miles. Here, her world was a loop a silent, endless loop.

There was a lion once called a king. But here, he had no throne. Just fake grass, fake rocks, and a real sadness in his eyes. He didn’t roar. Maybe he had forgotten how.

I saw parrots too vibrant feathers, dull eyes. Taught to mimic human words but robbed of their sky. One kept biting the cage bars as if trying to draw a door to the clouds.

Penguins waddled across artificial ice. They were born to dive through oceans, not shuffle in front of glass walls while humans waved and posed. It was cold, but their hearts burned quietly.

A dolphin floated motionless, pressing her head against the tank wall. There was no show today but the sorrow never takes a day off.

And a clownfish, bright and alone. It should have been playing hide and seek in coral reefs. Instead, it was hiding from nothing, circling synthetic rocks in a glass prison.

People smile when they see them. But this happiness has a price. These animals pay for it with their freedom, their instincts, their lives.

And humans? They got a taste of it too. During the pandemic, they were locked in. Stuck between walls, away from others. They longed for air, space, contact. That was just for months. These animals have been waiting for years and they’re still waiting.

hachiko,zoo
I’m Hachiko. And I say this with no hesitation: I’m against zoos and circuses. No joy is worth the suffering of another soul.

Freedom is not a luxury. It is a right for birds, for lions, for dolphins, for all of us. They should live in the sky, in the forest, in the sea, not behind bars for us to enjoy.

hachiko,zoo,haçiko,hachi

amimals,zoo

haçiko,hachi

haçiko,hachi