Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for September 23, 2023

Hobbes ruining quality family time for Calvin.

I would think Calvin would like prison.

i think the last zoo i went to was in 1970 in San Antonio Texas and it was to stand outside the perimeter to watch, when the zookeepers blew the closing all clear whistle, certain birds leap out of their enclosures (pits) and stroll along the pathways. LOL i really do not like zoos

Cool beans idea, Hobbes!

Is this the arc where Dad not-too-secretly hopes that Calvin falls into a wild animal enclosure?

Hobbes doesn’t want see his relatives, behind bars.

Just leave Hobbes at home. In his zoo……

This one took me a second…now I can’t stop chuckling. Especially the middle panel expressions.

Fair point. But maybe Calvin needs to take a tour of a prison, maybe it’ll shape him up.

My wife an I recently visited the Zoo in North Carolina. It is one of the biggest in the world in land area. A lot of it is still undeveloped. However, the large land area means few cages. Many of the enclosures can be measured in square miles.

They do an excellent job with rocks (some artificial) and ditches and moats to keep animals and people separated. You rarely see bars or fences.

In inclement weather, they have barns for the animals. I can’t imagine what the one for the giraffes looks like.

A hint for anyone who visits. Take the tram to the Junction (mid point that separates North America from Africa). It’s mostly downhill in either direction from there.

Sigh…

I think Calvin got the precursor that Hobbes may be caught and get to live in the zoo after that, instead of adventurous life with Calvin. That’s the pun.

Hobbes would like that prison if they gave tuna sandwiches and tummy rubs.

Funny.

it should be interesting to learn (if not blocked by human stupidity) how an arc about zoos bring out the worst of us (humans). Cages, bars, food delivery, restrain of space, and specially money exchange can be so easily forgotten by the pleasure of quality zoos, savings from extintion (which we are causing) and many more bannal reasons. Humans are less inteligent than other species, who don’t depend on electronics, internet and chemicals; yet we believe ourselves as saviors of the planet and a superior species. Don’t forget that when natural disasters or war explodes, even quality zoos are forgotten.

My friend lived in an apartment close to the SF zoo. He had to move because he couldn’t sleep with all noise the monkeys made at night

Even worse? An aquarium.

The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago is very proud of their Beluga Whales: Majestic creatures, probably smarter than humans, meant to range the ocean – stuck in a 75’X40’X25’ puddle.

“Well, you’re going anyway, so get yourself ready to go!”

Good point Hobbs.

There are humane zoos and ones that aren’t so kind to their animals. As awareness grows, there are more of the former and fewer of the latter. The sad fact of the matter is that many threatened species owe their continued existence to being kept safe in zoos. For example, it’s doubtful that giant pandas will still exist in the wild a century from now.

It seems to me Calvin has become quite a bit more mature in recent months. I wonder if I’ve mised out on some important event in Waterson’s art work.

The point of this strip is that Hobbes visiting a zoo would be like humans visiting a prison. He would have been sad to see animals in cages, and animals, unlike imprisoned humans, have done nothing to deserve being locked up.

If zoos are going to do conservation work as they claim as an excuse for their continued existence then that is all they should do.

I have been to a couple of zoos and the best one that I think was the Cleveland Zoo in Ohio, they seemed to treat their animals great and the areas the were in were large and had a lot of native plants and trees the certain animals would have in the wild. I don’t really like the ideas of zoos but if they treat the animals good and it is that or the animals would die I would rather see them continue to live. On the other hand, I have been to one or two zoos that treated their animals horrible and had such small enclosures that the animals couldn;t even freely move around and those are the ones that should be closed and the owners jailed for mistreating animals.

Let’s go watch the lions and tigers lick their chops, staring out at all the free-range tasty nibbles!