Measures designed to protect the health and welfare of animals (19USC1308)

Last week, a friend asked me to accompany her and her kids to Tijuana's version of Central Park, Parque Morelos, which has a zoo in the middle of it. On Facebook, I mocked this zoo for having raccoons on display as wild creatures. This week, the same friend and I took her children to the San Diego Zoo, which is in that city's version of Central Park, Balboa Park. (I guess zoos are a good way of making Christmas-crazed children calmer and tamer than caged animals.)

And lo and behold, there was a display for raccoons, but the cage was empty (right), when the Tijuana zoo had at least a dozen (left). So I started to question the superiority of a zoo that can't round up a few common varmints with a well-placed trash can. Sure, the Tijuana zoo was almost completely lacking in safety and educational materials for visitors, but perhaps its residents were of the same quality of those in San Diego's zoo.

  

Indeed, both zoos had leopards, and although the pacing of the specimen at the San Diego zoo (right) is probably more ingrained in Felidaes, you have to respect a facility that encourages its big cats to spoon instead (left).

Raccoons and leopards were the only animals that the zoos had in common, according to my visits, but there were other beastly similarities. The Tijuana zoo had relatives of the raccoon, coatis (left), which sounds an awful like koalas, which were just as stagnant at the San Diego zoo (right).

 

And both zoos had slothful members of the Ursidae family, one native to North America and one to the Arctic. Because bear love is colorblind, the black one (left) and white one (right) were equally as endearing in their idleness.

 

However, in some aspects, the San Diego zoo revealed reasons for its reputation. The Tijuana zoo had monkeys (left) -- I could tell you what kind if the cage placard hadn't been faded beyond legibility -- but the San Diego had much more impressive gorillas (right).

 

Both zoos had aquatic displays, but the San Diego zoo went above and beyond the turtles and solitary crocodile at the Tijuana zoo (left) by adding fish and a baby hippo (right).

 

Considering my allegiance to the Attack Cats of Ohio University, I should favor the lynx at the Tijuana zoo (left), but I found the wallaby at the San Diego zoo considerably cuter as it munched on some leaves (right).

 

On the other hand, the Tijuana zoo had its share of untamed wonders. The San Diego zoo had lions, but they were playing coy, unlike the panther at the Tijuana zoo (left), which outshines the only other cat I saw at the San Diego zoo, a meerkat (right), any day.

 

The world's largest rodent, the capybara (right), might have added another point to the San Diego zoo's tally, but it couldn't compete with the coyotes at the Tijuana zoo (left), whose walking gait and sitting posture reminded me so much of Sage's.

 

My dog is part of the reason that I preferred the red foxes at the Tijuana zoo (left) over the Asian camel at the San Diego zoo (right). Their curiosity, more than its slobber, was more reminiscent of  Sage's visage.

 

So, to recap, that's two equal animals, two similar animals, three in favor of San Diego, and three in favor of Tijuana, leaving a dead heat without any more critters to compare. So the tie-breaker had to come from somewhere else, such as signage. I had a chuckle when I saw that the go-carts adjacent to the Tijuana zoo (left) had a line for SENTRI, just like the U.S.-Mexican border. And my sense of humor allowed me to laugh at the "spray zone" warning outside the lion cage at the San Diego zoo (right).

 

So I suppose that the better zoo really depends on your preferences. If you want to see lots of species interacting in their natural environments, including crowds of humans shoving and whining their way through fabricated habitats, then the San Diego zoo is for you. But if you want to come so close to the cages that you feel one step away from being featured on an episode of "When Animals Attack," then the Tijuana zoo it is. Simply follow your animal instincts.