Last month a father was arrested after he climbed into the San Diego Zoo’s elephant exhibit with his two-year-old daughter to take a selfie.
Luckily, the one elephant in the vicinity charged but let the man off with a stern warning.
In a statement, the zoo said, "This afternoon, March 19, 2021, two guests, despite multiple barriers, purposely and illegally trespassed into a habitat, which is home to our Asian and African elephants.” [Emphasis added.]
Sounds like the man was at fault, correct?
Well, yes and no.
The only question I’ve seen asked was, "Why did he do it??"
To be honest, for these purposes it doesn’t really matter. There’s always going to be someone who’s going to try something s/he shouldn’t.
The point is to zero in on the real issue at hand. In this case,
- Why was a man carrying a two-year-old child able to get into the elephant exhibit?
- And why did the zoo not check the exhibit for weak points and anticipate potential problems?
I believe that public spaces, such as zoos, should be designed to produce desired behaviors, or at least to make unwanted behaviors impossible. If the zoo doesn’t want people in a certain place, that place should be inaccessible, full stop.
Trying to figure out the cause of one specific incident can distract us from looking at the larger systemic problem.
I know I'm not saying anything new here. Just another reminder to focus on the problem, not only its manifestation.
During the last month I
- did a deep dive into a marketing and branding professional's yet-to-be-launched website to tighten the copy and strengthen her personal voice.
- edited Facebook posts on non-dominance positive reinforcement elephant target training and foot trimming in Nepal.
- committed to a new project doing user interviews.
- began revising my website's homepage.
