Loving Touch

The simple idea behind the design of contemporary children's zoos is that the youngsters will love the animals more if they are given a chance to touch them. So it was for the new children's zoo at Seattle's Woodland Park. Says the zoo's architect, Fred Bassetti: "We wanted the kids to play tug of war with the monkeys, pet the rabbits, hug the lambs, be chased by the geese--in a word, to participate rather than just look." Hence a minimum of cages and fences.

When the zoo opened recently, cages seemed necessary after all--for the children. A first-day mob of more than 15,000 of them, fresh out of school and impatient after long delays at the gates, tore the place apart. They smashed hatching quail eggs, hurled rocks at the ducks, dropped baby turtles on their backs, pounded away on the shell of the Aldabra tortoise. A Nubian goat bleated in agony as it was pulled from both ends. The baby elephant ran off in terror. A peacock, its tail feathers sore after having been yanked for hours, bit a four-year-old girl in the face. What the kids did not manhandle they made off with, including a number of turtles, pigeons, rabbits and guinea pigs.

"It's the worst kind of destruction I've seen," said Zoo Keeper John Nichols. "It'll be too bad," added another attendant, "if we get a mean elephant out of this--she certainly isn't going to get any smaller." Yet, despite the opening-day mayhem, Zoo Director Frank Vincenzi is determined to make the animals available to children. "There will be no fences," he said. "That would ruin what we're trying to make here."

Last week his judgment was already being vindicated. As shame followed the orgy, the zoo was flooded with sympathetic phone calls and letters. Most of the missing animals were smuggled back under coats and in lunch pails. Children began policing one another's behavior. A pair of eight-year-old girls rang doorbells and collected $14.39, which they sent in with a note of apology, saying that "hopefully, most children are taught kindness and gratitude for the love and beauty of God's creatures." "The contrast is unbelievable," said Seattle Park Superintendent Edward Johnson. "It's as if the public is trying to deserve its new zoo." And as if the children themselves had learned more from the episode than anyone would have dared imagine.

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