At Manchester Histories we are aware of a couple of comments people have made in response to the Belle Vue: Showground of the World project about their concerns that we are ignoring the abuse of animals that may have taken place at Belle Vue. There has been no attempt to gloss over this: very early in project planning we held discussions with academic zoologists in an attempt to set up a debate around the issues of the ethics of zoos and what could be learnt from Belle Zue and the impact of a lack of investment in the zoo in its latter years. This debate would have also focused on the days of Gerald Iles’s directorship at the zoo when he took forward animal husbandry in zoos and was highly respected for the care and treatment of the animals, but unfortunately this part of the project did not go ahead because of the time commitments of the people we had hoped to be involved. At its heart, the ethos behind the Belle Vue: Showground of the World is primarily to recognise the importance of Belle Vue in thousands of ordinary people’s lives and to create a space for those memories to be celebrated, heard and recorded. It is about community cohesion and bringing groups together to provide a sense of pride of place and the opportunity to engage in new activities. The work of this project and collectives such as the Bring Back Belle Vue group is to take inspiration from the various histories of Belle Vue, and to learn from and improve on other areas with the grace of hindsight and increased contemporary knowledge. At Manchester Histories Festival, we would welcome any individual or organisation who has raised the issue of animal abuses at Belle Vue to organise a discussion about the history of the zoo and how we can learn from it today, as part of the Belle Vue exhibition’s event programme. In no way are attempting to ignore this area of Belle Vue’s past and look forward to hearing from participants who would like to get involved in this way.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 18:32:48 +0000
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