84: Abusive Prisons or Animal Oasis: Are Zoos Evil? | Dark History with Bailey Sarian
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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.

Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.

Hello, hi friends. I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my study and to my podcast, Dark History. Hi. Now this is a chance to tell a story like it is and honestly just to share the history of stuff we would never think about. So all you have to do is sit back, relax, and let's talk about that hot, juicy history, goss. Today's story is wild. Ugh.

Today we have Miss Joan in costume. She is dressed as a walrus, which is actually really f***ed up, Joan, because in today's story we do talk about a walrus and it's tragic. So I don't know why you went with that, girl. Questionable. Who's your costume designer? You should be fired.

But okay, girl, do your thing. Okay, you guys know I love my games. And one of my favorites was a little game called Zoo Tycoon. Ugh, I freaking loved it, okay? If you don't know, it was like Rollercoaster Tycoon where you could build a whole ass theme park, but it was less dangerous. So many people at my fake theme park ended up getting decapitated or like flying off the end of a rollercoaster.

which I set up on purpose 'cause I wanted destruction.

Anyway, Zoo Tycoon was a little safer. Well, at least for the people. But with this game, you got to build your own zoo. It was so fun, I loved it! I was obsessed with creating those bougie ass little habitats for my giraffes and elephants. And there was a trick to the game. You make more money when your animals and your visitors were happy. I mean, it was a lot of pressure, I won't lie. But it got me thinking.

Is that true about zoos in real life? So I started taking a stroll down memory lane, you know, when I would go to the zoo as a kid. And I was having some, let's say like troubling memories. Now, let me ask you something. Have you ever been to the zoo and noticed, I don't know, an animal just like pacing back and forth over and over again? Or maybe you've gone over to the hippos exhibit and the hippos are just swimming in the same weird pattern.

Maybe it's just me, but I thought it was because the tigers wanted to be closer to the people, like come out and greet their fans. Or maybe they were just hungry and honestly waiting for feeding time. But nay nay, it turns out, according to the Born Free Foundation, which is a wildlife conservation organization, when animals display weird, repetitive behavior like pacing, it's a type of psychological trauma called zookosis.

I know, plot twist. Who knew? Now, zucosis is defined as a mental illness that develops when an animal is living in captivity and they don't really have a situation like they would in the natural environment. It can cause them stress and quote, "There can be deterioration in the animal's physical and mental health. This may manifest in the development of physical disease or abnormal behavior."

In other words, they start to lose it. I mean, how are we supposed to know if the animal is happy or not, you know? Maybe they just don't even know any better. And after that, I got to Googling. And girl, let me tell you, that's when I found out about Gus. Gus was a polar bear who lived in Central Park Zoo in the 1990s. At first, Gus was really popular because of how active he was.

And Gus was always on the move. He was underwater, swimming around all day, hardly taking any breaks. And people thought he was happy to be in his little pool enclosure, just living his best polar bear life.

But then, but then, people started to notice something weird. You know, it sucks when you go to an exhibit and the animal has its back turned towards you and you're like, oh, sorry for bothering you, I'll go now. People started to notice Gus was swimming a lot, like constantly swimming in a figure eight shape.

Now he would swim like that for like 12 hours a day, just over and over and over again. And when he would stop for break, he would turn his attention to people pressing up against the glass, just watching him. And I guess he would start to follow them as they paced back and forth near the underwater glass enclosure, almost like he was stalking them. It was kind of creepy. Especially the little kids who were all excited to visit Gus.

He was now stalking them. Now I read that polar bears are natural predators and actually are super aggressive in the wild. Polar bears are so powerful, they can decapitate a human head with one swing of their paw. Oh dear. And their bite is more powerful than a great white shark's. So yeah, it's literally in their DNA. And Gus was trapped in that tiny enclosure with nothing to hunt or stalk,

or do, you know? His meals were prepared for him, just like all the other animals, so he had to get those instincts out somehow, right? Apparently his aggressive stalking of the kids was so scary they had to put up an extra barrier between the glass and the zoo visitors. Now doctors came in and evaluated Gus and determined he was struggling with zookosis and he was going through some mental trauma.

The media even gave him the nickname "the bipolar bear."

It's not funny, but you know, it's kind of funny. After getting behavioral therapy. Anyway, it wasn't enough. Gus needed something more to help him get better. And that's how Gus became the first zoo animal to be prescribed Prozac. Oh yeah, baby. An antidepressant. Poor little Gus. Look, they just wanted him to feel better and they were trying everything. The Central Park Zoo also did a couple other things to try to make his life better.

For example, they got him a little jacuzzi. What kind of bear doesn't want a jacuzzi? There was literally this headline from the BBC that read, Depressed polar bear cheers up with jacuzzi.

and I kind of loved it. Now as time went by, the zookeepers were trying to keep Gus's spirit lifted. So on top of that hot jacuzzi, they gave him new things to do, you know, to keep him occupied. Like food puzzles and giving him snacks that were a little bit more challenging to eat. Kind of like those Kongs for dogs. You know what I'm talking about. Challenging. But

At the end of the day, I mean, Gus wasn't a 25-pound dog. He was a 700-pound predator, and he probably had a lot less space than a lot of dogs out there. Most polar bear enclosures have 1 million times less space than they would in the wild. It would be like if we had to live our entire lives in a bathroom.

But we'd never have any privacy because there would be a giant window where the door should be and people would be watching us all day long, you know? Kinda hot, depending on who you are. Gus's keepers were running out of ideas to make Gus happy. I mean, if only they set him free, huh? But what they hadn't tried was giving Gus a potential lover.

So the zoo surprised Gus with his very own polar bear girlfriend. Oh yeah, baby. Her name was Lily. Now Lily and Gus shared a beautiful romance. People used to visit the zoo just to see their exhibit and see them lounging around together, being all cute, just having a good old time. You know, it was, it was adorable. But sadly in 2004, Lily passed away. Gus

obviously was left heartbroken. He just sat around in a daze and seemed confused and he was described as being "very disturbed" by her absence. Now the zoo eventually got Gus a new girlfriend in 2004. Now this new girlfriend, her name was Ida. And Gus bounced back to his old happy self, just full of life.

But this bear has some bad luck because, once again, tragedy struck. And Ida died in 2011 at the age of 25 of liver disease. I guess she was drinking too much beer. After that, Gus sunk right back into the deep depression of his. This time, he even stopped eating. Oh, poor Gus.

poor guy. In 2013, veterinarians found out that he had an inoperable thyroid tumor and poor Gus had to be euthanized. Ugh, it's so sad. It's like Jack and Rose with that door. You know, Gus just couldn't let Ida go. And it really just goes to show that whether you're a polar bear or human, love always prevails. But here's the thing. Gus was one of millions of zoo animals out there, right? And it really makes you wonder like how many more Gus's are out

And that also made me wonder, when and why the hell did we start zoos in the first place? And friends, buckle up because this story was not what I expected.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year. So you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.

Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory. History.

The first version of a zoo in the world was from, no surprise here, ancient Egypt in a place called the City of Falcon. Now this city was the "it" place in the prehistoric days of Egypt, okay? Many people came to the City of Falcon because it was known for having this very important temple

dedicated to worshipping several Egyptian gods, like Horus, the king of the gods. The city of Falcon was also the place where all the Egyptian royalty lived. So you know it was nice because

they got money and they're not gonna live not in luxury, you know? So, I mean, you get it. It was just a very important area of Egypt for a very long time. And it makes sense that the first zoo would be there. Now, archaeologists, they didn't even find this zoo until 2009. Archaeologists were out there digging around, doing their thing, and they found bones from the year 4000 BCE before the invention of writing and before the Great Pyramid.

The bones were from animals like baboons, leopards, crocodiles, hippos, gazelles, dogs. I mean, the list goes on. But what they didn't find were traces of the zoo like we know them today. You see, back then, these animals were a big deal to the city of Falcon. Now, don't get me wrong. It wasn't great for the animals because sometimes they were sacrificed as offerings to the Egyptian gods, but some were luckier and given as gifts to one another.

Royals at the time used to walk around with these animals just to like show off power to the other royals living in the area. They're like, "Hey, look at me."

I have a leopard. What do you have? Most of the time, these pet animals were not stuck in cages. They were actually given a bunch of space in like one giant enclosure where they would all just hang out together. But again, it wasn't free range bliss or anything. During this time, researchers found evidence that pet animals were maybe

beaten into submission. And that evidence came in the form of animal bones. Some hippos had broken legs, monkeys had broken hands, and there were even antelope bones that had markings on them consistent with being tied up.

It's crazy what bones can tell you, really. I didn't know that it would show that, but it did. Even though these kings may not have treated the animals so well, there is indeed evidence that they loved them because sometimes when researchers found animal bones buried in Egypt, they were all together like in a big circle and in the center of that circle would be human bones. I kind of thought of it of like, you know, someone who loves their animal and then they get buried with their animal. It was like,

that, you know? Is it weird? I don't know. I'm not here to judge. Do what you want. Be buried with your cockatoo. Some historians believe this was done because when powerful men died, oftentimes their families, especially like their wives and children, were killed and buried with them so they'd all transition to the

afterlife together. So the belief is that there was also a type of family bond between the human and the animal they were buried with. And all of the bones, human and animal, were all carefully covered. Remember from our mummy episode how sacred the wrapping of dead bodies was to them? I mean, the same thing was happening here.

So what I'm getting at really is that these exotic, powerful animals were the hottest items for kings back in the day. Again, it was like a flex, a sign of power. But zoos continued to be a private, rich person-only thing all the way through the Middle Ages. So yeah, I mean, for centuries, if a person had any sort of money, power, or influence,

Their favorite ways to flex was by owning a bunch of animals, especially the animals that people had never seen. The brighter, the stranger, the better. So in the beginning, zoos were intended to simply send a message. It was meant to symbolize the chaos of nature being brought under human control. Kind of like a signal to everyone saying, if I can tame this big ass hippo, imagine what I can do to you, sweetie.

Just like the Egyptians, royals in the Middle Ages had their own private zoos because they wanted to look powerful, you know? And they also casually gave exotic animals as gifts to one another. People knew gifting these exotic animals would get you the gift giver. Major points. Because royals love to add to their menageries, which is French.

for zoo. Fun, huh? King Henry III was gifted three leopards when he got married in 1235. What a year, huh? Other important rulers were gifted bears and even elephants. I mean, I guess that's better than a blender or a mixer, you know? Maybe more work, but more fun. If someone gifted me a bear, I would never need a partner because I just want to snuggle and I would snuggle that bear all day.

Wait, that sounds weird 'cause it sounds sexual, huh? If it did, sorry. I just want a bear so I could snuggle and then hopefully the bear eats me and it's kind of like this perfect circle. ♪ The circle of life ♪ You know? Thank you.

Keeping these animals alive was expensive, as I'm sure you can imagine, and not practical. But, as you know, anything the royals did was just that. It wouldn't be until about 10 years later that zoos opened to the public. But there was one zoo that really got people talking. And we have the French Revolution to thank for it. So...

The revolution started in 1789 because people were sick and tired of all the extravagant stuff the royals were spending money on. Meanwhile, their people were on the streets starving to death. You know? They had enough.

A perfect example of that was King Louis XVI's private menagerie. So King Louis's palace, which was called Versailles, had acres of land surrounding it. And this place, I'm telling you, is next level. I mean, it had more than 2,000 rooms.

Why? I don't know. Each of them though, decked out, bougie as hell. And then there were tons of gardens just surrounding it. I mean, woo, beautiful. So anyone who was anyone would kill to be invited over to this guy's palace, especially to get a look at the insane menagerie of animals that King Louis had collected over the years. He took a lot of pride in his collection and would invite guests to come take a look

at the palace, but also see the exotic animals. The people of France pointed out that the king cared more about feeding his pets instead of the people, you know?

Fair. I mean, kids were literally dying on the streets of starvation. Meanwhile, King Louie over here was like, "But did you notice the storks on your way in? Aren't they gorgeous?" Just ignore those dead kids over there. LOL. Finally, King Louie takes the hint and he's like, "Fine.

"I'll move these animals and make it public for everyone to see." And he did just that. And he also started a new trend because once his animals were on display for the public, lots of other countries took notice and started doing the same thing. Now zoos became the symbol of a nation's power

And once again, it was really just a way to show off. Now, when the animals showed up and were put into the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, it was a huge success. And it wasn't just the French who were visiting. It attracted people from all over the world who were willing to pay just to catch a glimpse of these animals

majestic animals. Zoos started to become a place you wanted to visit, you know? Somewhere to take the family, something to do on the weekend or on a day off. But most of all, it gave people an opportunity to see animals that they would never have seen otherwise. I mean,

This was their Google, okay? People loved it. And that created what we call demand in the marketplace. All that demand inspired one slick businessman in Germany to get into the zoo game. But not just that, he revolutionized everything we know about zoos now.

Some may call him iconic, others say he was evil, but either way, his legacy, it's pretty controversial. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

This is an ad by BetterHelp. What?

What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.

Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere. And the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory. Way to hire.

This part of our story starts in easily one of the cutest towns I've ever researched for this show. Okay. Welcome to Hamburg, a town in northern Germany. Now this place will make your jaw hit the damn floor. Okay. The churches are moody and Romanesque. The buildings are sleek and parts of it are giving Venice, you know, because there's all these cute boats and buildings on a river that runs through the center of town. A little fun fact.

We, or at least I am grateful for this city because this is where a little thing called the hamburger was invented. Hamburg? Hamburger?

Yeah, thanks Hamburg. So the date is June 10th, 1844, when a baby boy is born. His name is Carl Hagenbeck, which reminds me of Carl's Jr. You know, hamburgers. I still got hamburgers on my mind. So right off the bat, young Carl had his eye on the prize. And that prize?

Money. He wanted a lot of it. And he knew from a young age, in order to get there, he had to hustle. Hustle hard. Carl's father was a good role model for that because dad was a fishmonger, which is someone who sells fish. But Papa Hagenbeck had a little side hustle buying, showing, and selling animals that

you know, somehow fell into his lap. He's like, I don't know how I got it. I just got it. Because of that, Papa Hagenbeck had a whole collection of aquatic animals that he just held onto. So one day when Carl was 14 years old, his dad was working near a local river, mongering a bunch of fish, which kind of sounds scary, but he's selling them. And that's when a bunch of weathered fishermen approach in their own boat. They tie up on the dock,

They go up to Papa Hagenbeck and they're like, hey, we have something you might be interested in. Wink, wink. Like drugs? What?

No. You see, while the fishermen were out on the ocean fishing for stuff that they could sell, they ended up catching a bunch of seals. I take great pride in my seal noise, but now that I think of it, it might be a walrus that I'm doing. Either way, seals. Now, you know, this whole situation is a little...

It's a little suspicious, you know? No one accidentally catches seals. Like, oopsie, got a bunch of like slippery seals. But here we are, you know? Anyway, so these fishermen approached Papa Hagenbeck and they're like, Hagen, baby, listen, shh.

Hush those lips. You're going to love this. And they revealed a group of seals that they had found accidentally somehow. Now, they had to do this because Papa Hagenbeck actually had a deal with these fishermen where they had to give him everything they caught. And maybe it was Carl's birthday or something because Papa Hagenbeck went up to his son and was like, hey, happy birthday. Here's a seal.

Yeah, I know. It's an odd gift for a 14 year old, but good for him. When I was 14 years old, I got nothing for my birthday. Cause no one gave a shit. But okay, have fun with your seal, Carl. But I gotta tell you, when Carl saw those little seals, his eyes lit up. One, because hello, they're the cutest animals on the planet, so I get that. And two,

young Carl saw dollar signs. Oh yeah. Most likely, Carl was thinking to himself, "Hey, if I love looking at these things, I bet other people would too." And this sparked an idea in Carl and his dad's mind.

They're starting to realize that most people don't get to see these animals out in the sea, so maybe they might be willing to pay a pretty penny for a chance to see them up close, you know? So Papa Hagenbeck builds two large wooden vats, like giant buckets, to put the seals in. The Hagenbecks then set them up in like a local market area, which is about four blocks from the river, and they officially open this public attraction for business.

People immediately lined up to see these majestic creatures, and each person paid Carl about eight cents in German money at the time. So they were getting some coin. In Carl's own words, he said, quote, it's fair to say that the whole pet business grew out of this. And ta-da.

Their plan worked. So Carl is making a lot of money because of these seals. So he turns all of this into a huge business. I love seals. They're so precious. Oh my God. Seals are like little angels on this earth. They just look at you with those big eyes. I would give a guy a blowy around the corner just to get that eight cents to see those seals. Facts.

Armed with a bunch of boats, business connections, and employees, Carl organized trips from Germany into Africa.

The whole point of this was to find exotic animals, trap them, and then bring them back to Karl so he could, you know, show them off for a profit. And Karl was honestly able to do this pretty easily because at this time, the country of Germany was pretty heavy into colonization. So during the 1880s, Germany was just straight up stealing land in West and East Africa.

So they could just go right in, take what they need and come right back. Now I'm not gonna say all of this made Carl's animal theft easier, but it did allow him to keep his hands clean, you know? He would have the men do all the dirty work. They would come back. He didn't ask questions. He didn't need to know. So this meant that Carl could stop using the local animal dealers who I guess were just costing him a lot more money. And instead he could bring on his own employees and send them out to do all the work.

like animal snatching. He was essentially like the Charles Manson of animals. Everyone else did it for him. But research shows that these hunters were, at times, killing the animals honestly just for like shits and giggles. Animals, they would end up being separated from their babies and hundreds of them would die on their trip back to Germany because the conditions on the ship were so bad, they didn't even have like any ventilation.

and everyone was crammed in there like an evil Noah's Ark. Or maybe I should call it the Black Pearl.

Carl's company started to get a serious reputation as the go-to place for any kind of animal you needed or just wanted. And it wasn't long before he became the biggest animal dealer in Europe. How big, you ask? Well, he put together a little tally of the animals he captured during his first 20 years of business. And boy, is it shocking. Now, Carl sold at least 1,000 lions, around 400 tigers,

700 leopards, thousands of different types of bears, something like 800 hyenas, and 300 African elephants. 300! I'm more shocked at the 300 African elephants because that's a lot of space. I mean, African elephants are almost 11 tons each. How did he get 300? That's a lot. I got questions.

He also sold at least 17 rhinos, 150 giraffes, and then like 600 antelopes. Jeez. Carl tried to publicly portray himself as a man who only did all this because he deeply loved animals. I love animals, you guys. I just love them. In the press, there were photos of Carl surrounded by like walruses who would come up and snuggle him. Yeah. Yeah.

So there's pictures of the Carl with walruses and they were all like being all cute next to him. I mean, when you see that alone, you're like, oh my God, he does love animals. Okay, but look, plot twist. We're gonna take a sharp left here because the real reason why the walruses were snuggling up to him

"It's so dark, you're gonna cry." I cried. So in Carl's own memoir, he explained how he actually captured these cute defenseless walruses. He said, quote, "In order to catch the young, it is usually necessary to kill the mother." He would then go on to explain that one of his boats would go out into the ocean, find a family of walruses, and then just like murder the mom in cold blood.

I know. So then everybody would just wait. Okay. Go totally silent. Then the guys on the ship or the boat, whatever, they would pull the mother's body real close, real close to them. And then they would just wait after some time goes by. Eventually a baby walrus would swim up and climb onto its mother's back. And then the baby walrus would be like, mama, can you hear me?

She couldn't, 'cause her ass was dead, you know? Ugh, dark. Anyway, at that point,

Carl said, quote, it was not difficult to overcome the unassisted young animal. Oh, what a big strong man you are, Carl. What I'm getting at is that all of Carl's walruses were orphans and most likely these baby walruses saw Carl as like some version of a parent. So now when you look at that photo of Carl with the walruses around him, it's like, yeah, no shit they're going to be snuggling up next to you.

They think that you're his mom, right? Asshole. Boo. Canceled. Well, Carl didn't mind though because business was booming. I mean, it was so good that he was able to realize his lifelong dream. And in 1907, he opened up what would become an iconic zoo just outside of his hometown of Hamburg. Now,

Now, this zoo was called Tierpark Hagenbeck, and this was a revolutionary place because Carl completely changed the way zoos looked. Now, before this, animals at the zoo were stuck behind bars and

were housed inside like these really stinky, awful buildings. And the whole thing is just so depressing. So Carl was like, "Screw that, I've got something else." And he went all extreme home makeover on that shit. Everyone loves a makeover. So Carl, he's like, "Let's get rid of the bars. Let's knock down all these walls. Let's get rid of a roof."

Okay? And when you entered to your park, he wanted you to feel like you were walking into an animal's natural habitat, almost so it looked like the animals had always lived there. Like, oh my God, you had entered into their home. And honestly, he

He did just that, and it was pretty legit looking. The animal enclosures at Tier Park were more panoramic than scenic, and they were huge. I'm talking like 50 acres. And it was the perfect place for Carl to show off his impressive collection of animals. So when he walked in, there would be like small ponds over here. And then over there is like a riverbank with some cute little deer to

getting some water from it. Beyond that, there were zebras and ostriches running around and overlooking all of it were lions and tigers just hanging out by those natural looking rock formations he put in. Honestly, it was a beautiful sight to see.

Snap. The park was designed to convince visitors that the animals were living in a happy, healthy environment. You know, very similar to their natural habitats that they were stolen from. Or something. The design of this park had nothing to do with making the lives of these animals less depressing. It was all about making it seem...

Less depressing. And these changes were specifically made for the people's benefit. Almost like Carl wanted the visitors to seem like they were on a safari in Germany. Checks out. But in the end, it was just for aesthetics. I mean, the animals don't care about cool looking rock formations or a little pond, you know? It was all about getting visitors to buy tickets and have an experience.

So if you've been to a zoo recently, it's almost guaranteed that the layout was inspired by Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, which I thought was quite wild. Because all the zoos do look like that. To be fair, Carl's entire legacy isn't all that bad, I guess. I mean, he really did love animals. Cool, you know? And rumor has it that he treated the animals better than any other zoo out there.

at the time. For example, other zoo owners would beat the shit out of their animals to keep them in line and if the animals still acted out after the beatings, they'd get burned with like flaming hot irons. So that's cool that Carl didn't do that.

You know? So instead of being punishment focused towards the animals, Carl's method was based on rewarding good behavior. And these kinder, quote unquote, "kinder" techniques eventually replaced the harsher methods. So yeah, I mean it's safe to say that Carl is a pretty big deal in the zoo community. I mean the man did build a reputation for himself. But of course, you know, there's a whole other side to it. God damn it, it gets real dark.

I mean, he wasn't just known for his fancy habitats at Tier Park or snatching up defenseless animals from the wilds. And honestly, this other thing he's known for makes the whole, like, killing the walrus mom and stealing her baby. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.

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This is when we welcome to the scene something called ethnological expositions, a.k.a. human zoos. Oh, God, eye roll. Yeah, human zoos. So let me tell you, Carl...

little old Carl, was inspired by his trips to Africa when again, he had another light bulb moment. He came up with a brand new business plan. He thought to himself, "Hey, if people like looking at exotic animals, I bet they'll like looking at people they've never seen before too." Beginning in 1874, Carl and his people would go out and find indigenous families that were struggling to make ends meet. And Carl would approach them and be like, "Hey, I'll give you some cash.

But you got to come back with me to Germany. And indigenous families were seeing a way out of their poverty. And, you know, many of them felt like they had no choice but to say yes. So Carl used this strategy with indigenous people from Africa, East India, really anywhere he wanted. And he would relocate them to Germany. And he wasn't just taking one or two people. He would be taking entire families away from their tribes and would put them on display for people to gawk at.

Some of the indigenous people were exhibited alongside huts and would wear bones as hair accessories. For example, like putting Egyptians on display and having them ride camels in front of pyramids to like,

Carl most likely made out of papier-mâché. Carl once again exhibited them in a stereotyped version of their quote-unquote "real home life." And again, it was all an illusion. A performance, really. A very problematic performance. But the thing is, visitors to Carl's exhibitions love this shit.

and more and more people kept paying to come see it. He was so successful that Carl took his human zoo exhibit on tour in different parts of Europe, like Paris, London, and Berlin. Now I wondered, why the hell was this so popular?

Well, Giles Boych, an anthropologist, said people were "fascinated by this type of exoticism, which they had never seen before." But there is also another reason why this worked. Many of these indigenous women

didn't have a top on. They were bare-breasted, which is so, ugh, it just, ugh, a cherry on top, you know? And like, this was very taboo in Europe at the time, so people just want to see some titties. Science journalist Charlene Saitoun said that these exhibits were kind of like finding a loophole in society that usually frowned upon nudity. I mean, not only are these women taken from their lives and their families, but now they're being sexualized and just,

fully taken advantage of. It's just really creepy and so gross, right? Now you're probably wondering, did these people at least get paid? You know, did they get compensation for sacrificing their lives to be there? Well, I guess Carl did technically pay his performers.

We don't know how much they made, but I'm sure, you know, look, this is dark history and I'm sure we can assume that it wasn't a lot. I mean, it's hard to negotiate or stand up for yourself to get more pay when you don't even speak the same language, you know, which many of them didn't. Now the people being exploited by Carl, quote unquote, performed several times a day and white Europeans just gawked at them from morning to night. And when they went on tour, it was kind of how carnivals and circuses did it.

But constantly changing locations along with bad working conditions turns out to be a very deadly combination. In 1880, an Inuit family of eight from a region in Canada died of smallpox because they weren't vaccinated by the people in charge. And then an entire group of Sioux natives lost their lives to measles and pneumonia, all because the people in charge weren't taking care of them.

We actually have a first-hand account of one of the people who was in one of Carl's exhibitions. His name was Theodore Wanja Michael. Now, Theodore and his family had all been on display, and they knew the dark reality of how bad these human zoos could be. However, they never publicly told their story because it was so painful to them. But then, in 2013, when Theodore was 88 years old,

He decided to speak out about his treatment within the human zoo and even wrote a book about it. Now in this book, we learn that Theodore's mother was German and his father was from Cameroon, a country in Central Africa. When the family moved to Berlin in the early 1900s, it became very clear that they couldn't find any jobs because of their race. So it felt like the only option they had was to become homeless.

performers in one of these human zoos. Theodore said, quote, we danced and performed together with fire eaters, but very early on I began to hate these shows and my participation in them. Theodore went on to explain that in these human zoos, he and his family were what people in Europe imagined what African people were like.

They thought of them as, quote, uneducated and cultureless savages, end quote. Oh, God. He recalled stories about how strangers ran their fingers through his hair because they had never seen African hair before. He said, quote, they sniffed at me to see whether I was real or not. They were just treating him like a freaking animal, you know? Carl continued to run his human zoos until 1931. I mean,

let's do some math here. Yeah, I did it. That means these ran for about 57 years. Yeah, that's a long time. Now, it may seem that Carl was the only guy putting on these human zoos, but

sadly he wasn't the only one. Human zoos have been around since 1836. They were big in Paris, Hamburg, Barcelona, Milan, even in the United States and they were seen as a form of mass entertainment. The human zoos continued for many many years and the last one didn't even close until the 2000s which completely blew my mind but facts.

In the early 2000s, we were eating chicken fries from Burger King and watching the real world. And somewhere on the planet, there was like a human zoo going on. Oh God. And look, there's so much middle ground here. And sadly, we don't have enough time to cover it in this episode, but we're going to add some more links about the history of human zoos down below if you're interested in learning more. And you can let me know in the comments if you guys want a whole episode dedicated to human zoos.

because it's real fucked. Now, while treatment of people and animals in zoos was always pretty sketchy, shit really hits the fan when we go to war. Back in the 1800s, Philadelphia was essentially like the capital of America. Everything went down in Philly. It was hustling. It was bustling. It was...

It was a shit. And in 1859, they decided it was time for America to get her own zoo. And it was naturally going to be built in Philly. I'm not talking about like a little rinky dink zoo with a couple of turkeys and a chimp, that chain smokes, you know, which was a real thing in Albania. But this zoo?

Ah, it was gonna be huge. And the plans for it, they actually called it a zoological garden, complete with hundreds of animals and a whole staff of keepers. And most of all, it was gonna be classy, you know? The city of Philly decided it was going to be a zoo that prioritized science and education, which sounds nice, right?

But of course, like these plans hit a slight road bump when something called the Civil War happens. So it got put on pause for a minute. But good news, America won. And then 15 years later, the plans for this luxury zoo garden picked back up. On July 1st, 1874, the Philadelphia Zoological Garden opened with almost 300 animals on display. Antelopes, lions, zebras, kangaroos, elephants.

Rhino. I guess there were like 50 monkeys. That's a lot of monkeys. And a bunch of reptiles. Cool.

The people of Philly were not ready, really. And when I say not ready, I mean people were straight up abusive and inappropriate with the animals, of course. We can't have nice things. I guess visitors would come in, they would reach through the cages, they would poke at the animals, they would use their umbrellas and like poke their umbrellas at them, you know? It got so bad that in just a week, the zoo's gentle sloth, that's what it was called, gentle sloth,

Well, he was killed from all the aggressive poking and jabbing that was going on from the visitors. Sad.

Anyway, to everyone except that sloth, the Philly Zoo was considered a massive success. I mean, it was drawing in huge crowds every single day. And at this time, lots of advancements and zookeeping started happening. The Bronx Zoo started trying to help out endangered animals like the American bison. And slowly but surely, it looks like there's a push for zoos to really start looking out for their animals and protect them, not just pimp them out for tickets and money, you know?

But then World War I rolls around and a lot of that progress just gets thrown right out the window during this time food starts being rationed, which meant there was a limited amount of how many groceries you could buy specifically for basics like meat and dairy. The zoos were screwed because I'm sure maybe you can imagine they have a lot of mouths to feed.

And that's when the zoo diets get a little sketchy. So normally they would feed the animals like beef or chicken, but then American zoos started feeding their big meat eating animals like dog food or sometimes even horse meat. I'm looking at you Aldi. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Aldi, they were selling horse meat.

Anyways, as the food shortage in the war got worse, zoos had to get more creative, let's say. Look, randomly this naval base had a bunch of baby bears. Let's not ask questions, let's just move forward. So the naval base donates all of these cubs to the San Diego Zoo. So the zoo, they get all these cubs and they're like, "Hey, we already have like a lot of bears."

too many, you know, we got too many bears. And because this is wartime and again food is scarce, the San Diego Zoo does something absolutely vile. They end up deciding to slaughter all the adult bears and keep only the baby bears because people love baby bears, you know, and it's all about keeping the visitors happy.

"Fuck the bears." After slaughtering all these bears, they're like, "Well, we're not gonna waste all that delicious bear meat." You know? So the San Diego Zoo actually made the Sweeney Todd-ass decision to sell all their dead bears to local hotels to be cooked and served to the guests. Now, the zoo director apparently defended this move,

saying that it kept money coming into the zoo. So if you were staying at San Diego hotels around the end of World War I, I hope you didn't order the berry delicious scramble at brunch, because you were probably eating a bear, you know? Berry delicious? Bear? Now, zoo attendance was still pretty high during both of the wars. You know, people, they wanted to escape from all the horrific news and just be distracted.

And the zoo was a great place to do that. But little did the visitors know that their little oasis was actually doing cutting edge secret experiments specifically for the war effort. And some of these experiments did not end very well for the animals. A polar bear was forced to drink boric acid, which is a poison, so that the Navy could study the chemical effects on the bear's brain. So they did that and then it died.

You know, because it was drinking poison. So they were just using the animals at their disposal as lab rats. But during World War II, plenty of zoos didn't have enough money to do experiments. I mean, let alone feed their animals. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.

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Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.

Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp.

Visit BetterHelp.com slash Dark History today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Dark History. These zoos turned into full-on death camps. Oh, God. Between not having enough food to keep the animals from starvation and, like, not having enough fuel to keep the climates warm enough for them, being a zoo animal in the early 1900s was not ideal, you know?

Not great. Some would say risky. And to make it even darker, slaughtering animals to save resources usually had to be done by the same zookeepers whose jobs were, well, up until then, to care for the animals. Imagine being a zookeeper and you're like raising a baby spider monkey. Like every day you go up, you feed him. You're like, hey, spider monkey.

You're so cute, you know, you're watching him grow, stare into his little spider monkey eyes. And then one day, the zoo can no longer afford to keep your cute little special spider monkey friend. So your boss hands you a gun and tells you to take care of it.

with a little winky face, you know? Take care of it. Oh, and don't forget to do the zebras too. They gotta go. Oh, and you can't go home until it's done. Thanks. Well, this is exactly what happened. The Boston Zoo killed almost all of their monkeys because they needed to cut costs. The Cedar Rapids Zoo in Iowa, well, I guess they ended up executing four of their bears, four foxes, a wolf, two bison, a cockatoo,

a coyote and a bunch of alligators. They all had to go, couldn't afford it anymore. Zookeepers and civilians worried that, look, like if the zoo got caught in some kind of war crossfire situation, you know, dangerous animals,

would probably like escape and even attack them on the street. Zoos that could afford to made special enclosures for their highly dangerous animals. So if they did get bombed, they would not escape and, you know, attack people. Could you imagine like an alligator just coming up to your house or what else is scary? A bison, a walrus? Well, I'd let him in. Come on in walrus, you're in. The easiest and cheapest thing to do was to simply get rid of the problem.

If it's poisonous or dangerous, just get rid of it, kill it. And many of them did just that. Zoos in New York gave all of the zookeepers a .44 caliber rifle and even gave them shooting lessons at the police armory so that they could ultimately shoot any dangerous animals that might get out

if there were an explosion. Now, it was even worse in Europe. Between 1939 and 1944, zookeepers at the London Zoo slaughtered nearly 200 of their animals. 400 animals were killed at the Hamburg Zoo, either because they were hit by enemy fire or shot on sight if they had gotten out of their cages.

And in Europe especially, tons of animals died simply because no one was around to take care of them. And then when the temperatures dropped or they ran out of food, these poor little animals just died in their cages. Hagenbeck seals back at the Hamburg Zoo were so scared by the sounds of bombs dropping that they swam like crazy around their habitat until their hearts just gave out.

That was so sad. In all of these cases, the animals were perfectly healthy, and I'm sure there's a case to be made that they would have survived the war just fine if they'd been left in nature, where they could at least hunt and forage for themselves. But that gets at the bigger question of...

You know, is it ever ethical to take an animal from their natural habitat and put it in jail? I know we aren't killing monkeys or bears and selling their meat to hotels now, at least I think, you know? But if World War III started tomorrow, what would happen to zoos? That might feel like a silly question, but really, if like another war happened, would you be thinking about zoos?

No, at least I went. I know I'm more worried about like getting grandma onto the bomb shelter where all the cans of spam are at. Not the poor animals, oh God. Just like every other big company we talk about here, zoos today have undergone a rebrand.

A transformation, if you will. Zoos used to be all about like showing off the animals, you know? But now, allegedly, they're all about conservation, which essentially means preserving these incredible animals by making sure they don't go extinct. They started doing this in the 1980s as a way to make zoos more about education and less centered on entertainment.

One way they do this is through captive breeding, which basically means busting out that good old fashioned turkey baster and getting other animals knocked up. You know, the ones that are about to go extinct or maybe they're not very good at breeding. They just did it themselves. This is formerly known as artificial insemination. The San Diego Zoo has been doing this with some of their southern white rhinos, which were almost extinct. Yay?

I'm not sure. Some zoos even do this with pandas who typically, I guess like they don't like to breed. They don't want to, they're busy. They just want to chill and eat bamboo and just be cute, you know? So it makes sense that zoos who already have the animals in captivity would maybe want to go the extra step to make the species keep on living so we can keep on learning about them and loving them.

There are organizations out there doing amazing work trying to get animals in captivity back into the wild through something called reintroduction programs. Now, these programs are essentially trying to reintroduce the animals into their natural habitat. Be one with the trees, you know? But turns out, it's a lot more complicated than that.

The problem with this is that these animals are bred to keep living in the zoo just like their parents. Many of the animals couldn't even survive when they were released back into the wild. You know, like just picture an orangutan in the jungle for like the first time ever.

being like, "Now what do I do? There's no people. Where's my food? What do I do now?" They don't even know how to survive. They don't know how to take care of themselves. They need some basic life training, but they didn't get that at the zoo. Good on these people for trying. You know, they're out there doing the Lord's work. But it turns out if we're looking at the numbers, these programs,

They're kind of a flop. Kinda. Trying to be nice, you know? For example, a group of 500 orangutans were released into the wild in Africa. Unfortunately, they didn't survive long because they literally couldn't climb trees. Ugh. It was like a great day to be a lion. Bad day to be that ape. I mean, it's like kicking your indoor cat onto the streets and expecting him to just adjust to a diet of garbage and

Like it's gonna be hard out there, it's gonna be rough. So then what's the point of creating more of these animals if they can't even live their lives in the wild like they're supposed to, you know? It's almost like zoos created a problem that only they can solve. Interesting, I don't think that's, interesting. So what have we learned today, friends?

Wow. The history of the zoo is questionable, right? To say the least. At the end of the day, it's still a bunch of animals in cages. And I mean, they didn't ask to be there, especially the animals that were born in captivity. They don't know any different. It's just sad, you know, especially for bigger animals like giraffes and elephants. They're just stuck with a cage that's small and people are just staring at them all day.

Must be boring too, you know? What do you do? Kick around a ball? When zoos are brought into the conversation these days, most people say they don't like the idea of animals being locked up, that they should be set free and live in the wild. And I think many people will totally agree with that idea. At the end of the day, just let the animals be.

But, and there's always a but, throughout the years zoos have promised or said that they do indeed take care of their animals. And as we've learned today, you know, the lie detector test determined that was a lie. So it's kind of like, do you just trust what they're saying? I mean, they told us back in the olden days that they were taking care of the animals, but were they, you know? So they say they're doing better now and I guess all we can do is hope that they are.

And then animal sanctuaries and these conservation organizations entered the picture, right? And these places also claim to be looking out for the animal's best interest. I'm sure many of them, or some of them at least are, but that's also what Carl Hagenbeck said at the start too. So who do we, who can we really trust? You know, if only animals could talk.

They let us know. Look, it's okay to question those in charge and ask for more information. Like, hey, is that animal really happy? Or like, what are you doing? What are you doing for the animals? Well, everyone, thank you for learning with me today. Remember, don't be afraid to ask questions, you know? To get the whole story. Where the fuck do your animals come from, yeah? You deserve that.

I'd love to hear your guys' reactions to today's story, so make sure to use the hashtag DarkHistory over on social media so I can follow along. And also, join me over on my YouTube, where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And while you're there, you can also catch my murder mystery in makeup. I hope you have a great rest of your day, you make good choices, and I'll be talking to you next week. Goodbye! Goodbye!

Dark History is an Audioboom original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian High, Junia McNeely from 3Arts, Kevin Grush, and Matt Enloe from Maiden Network. A big thank you to our writers, Joey Scavuzzo, Katie Burris, Allison Filobos, and me, Bailey Sarian. Writer's assistant, Casey Colton.

Production lead, Brian Jaggers. Research provided by Xander Elmore. A special thank you to our expert, Derek Lartaud. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. Goodbye. What you're hearing is hardy fiber cement siding living up to its reputation as the siding that handles hail impact with ease.

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