Terraria Reality Mod

[Giordano Thibault]

Howeverothers less fortunate than I have been kept in cages, and do not have the freedom to go anywhere they want as I have. Other sentient beings have been kept captive in cages of different types for their entire lives. This has been happening for the last 10,000 years since humans began domesticating some animals and keeping them captive. Possibly, it all may have started with a rope. Then some form of enclosure with wooden sticks working as fences. At one point, metal bars and wire mesh may have been added, so people began calling the enclosure a cage.

Different cultures may have used different types of cages to keep animals in for different reasons, but the basic purpose is essentially the same: to restrict their movement, to keep them captive, to prevent them from leaving, and to do it against their will, while at the same time, be able to observe them from the outside. Sometimes this was done to help those kept captive, but in the vast majority of cases, it was to exploit and abuse them.

Cages are often physical manifestations of a subtle form of violence inflicted against those kept in them. Cages have been key instruments of carnist societies, and as we all have grown up in such societies, we take them for granted. Vegans like myself do not like them, even if we may still be occasionally using them in animal sanctuaries, animal shelters, or wildlife rehabilitation centres. It may be worth dedicating some time to this subject and finding out the reality of animal cages.

The smallest cages of all must be the crates domestic pigs are kept in factory farms. These crates not only confine the animals but even prevent them from turning around because they are so minuscule that they are barely bigger than the size of the prisoners. There are two types, gestation crates and farrowing crates.

Gestation crates (or sow stalls) are metal enclosures in which a farmed sow used for breeding may be kept during pregnancy. They normally measure 6.6 ft x 2.0 ft (2 m x 60 cm), which is just a little longer than the length of an average sow. Pig farrowing crates are metal cages that mother pigs are placed inside to give birth to their piglets, and to nurse them afterwards. They are also made of metal bars which entirely restrict the movement of mother pigs, as they only can stand, lie down, and take one or two steps forward or backwards. Each cage is also around two metres (6.6 ft) long and less than one metre wide. The main purpose of the farrowing cage is to lower the risk of piglets being crushed by the mother, as pigs have been made so heavy by artificial selection and overfeeding that the normal instincts that would prevent a mother from avoiding such accidents can no longer operate properly (wild pigs do not have this problem). Therefore, these minuscule cages are a human-made problem made to solve another human-made problem.

Gestation crates and farrowing crates are both extremely cruel forms of confinement which are very similar to each other both in size and purpose (immobilising the pig preventing her from turning or rolling over), but one side of the farrowing crates is grated, allowing the piglets to access the mother pig to nurse. A 2022 study in 17 different countries, some of them where gestation crates are common, some of them where the crates are restricted, and others where gestation crates are completely banned, found that rates of sow mortality were highest in countries using gestation crates.

Another minuscule cage can be found in the bear bile farming industry. Commercial bear bile farming began in China in the 1980s. It was also practised in Vietnam, South Korea, Laos, and Myanmar. By the early 1990s, there were over 400 bear farms in China alone, containing tens of thousands of suffering Asiatic black bears. Like in the case of pigs in the West, the cages the bears are kept in are so small that they cannot turn around or stand on all fours (so they can even be considered smaller as the pigs can at least stand).

Miniscule cages can also be found in the exotic pet trade industry, often the containers in which the animals are transported. Reptiles and amphibians exhibited in pet trade fairs are often kept in minuscule plastic containers that do not allow them to turn around.

Finally, the other types of minuscule cages are those used to transport animals (often to slaughterhouses) in such a way they cannot turn around. In some cases, the cage may be bigger but many animals are kept in them, so they cannot move and turn. Cows and pigs are often transported in these conditions. Dogs used for the food trade in countries such as China and Korea are often transported inside bags so they cannot turn around either.

Other animals often kept in tiny cages are rabbits. The farming of rabbits typically involves confining them in small, overcrowded cages that provide minimal space for movement, denying rabbits the ability to express their natural behaviours, such as hopping, digging, and exploring. In the EU, the majority of rabbits reared for meat are housed in tiny wire cages within large sheds containing 500 to 1,000 breeding females (known as does) and 10 to 20,000 rabbits. These cages are often stacked on top of each other, which can lead to health problems. The lack of adequate exercise and mental stimulation leads to physical and psychological suffering.

The next animals kept in tiny cages are those exploited by the fur industry in fur farms. Foxes, minks, sables, chinchillas, ferrets, and raccoon dogs are kept in tiny wire cages with limited enrichment, which leads to stress and abnormal behaviours. A typical fur farm has open-sided sheds which contain several rows of tiny wire-mesh cages, with floors also made of wire so that faeces can fall to the ground. Cages are stacked one on top of the other, and the animals can see each other which causes them stress. Mink cages are about two-and-a-half feet long, a foot wide, and a foot high, while fox cages are about a foot wider and six inches higher.

Other animals who are often kept in tiny cages are exotic birds. I have witnessed large macaws in the UK kept in small cages so small, only able to take a few steps to either side of the bar where they are perched, unable to extend their wings. In 2003 I conducted an undercover investigation into a random sample of Scottish pet shops. Among several findings, I found that 4% of birds were kept in cages with a floor area smaller than the minimum floor area recommended. I also found that 22% of the birds were kept in enclosures with perches that did not provide enough space to allow all birds to fully stretch their wings without touching each other or the cage walls.

Those calves from the veal industry who are not kept in narrow veal crates may still be kept in tiny cages slightly bigger, but which still limit their movement to prevent them from toughening their muscles.

Also, the animals used in the circus industry tend to be kept in tiny cages between performances. Such cages are very stereotypical as they often have metal bars, as most wild animal cages used to have, but they may also be on wheels so the animal can be transported to the next circus venue.

Small cages can also be typical for exotic animals kept as pets, including fishes in aquaria (and the dreaded bowl for goldfishes) and reptiles in terraria. Most hamsters, degus, lizards, snakes, parakeets, budgerigars, canaries, fancy mice, and pet rats are normally kept in these types of cages, as well as most animals used in the vivisection industry.

Small cages can also be found as temporary accommodation in wildlife rehabilitation centres where wild animals are recovering from a problem before being returned to the wild, and also in animal shelters where dogs or cats are waiting to be adopted by humans.

Another conclusion I came to during my study of enclosure sizes in UK zoological collections (which included safari parks) was that the heavier the mammals kept, the bigger the difference between the size of their enclosure and the size of their minimum home range. Between 2000 and 2001, mammals with a body mass bigger than 100 Kg (megafauna, which is what you normally see in safari parks) were confined to enclosures that had an average area 1,000 times smaller than their minimum home range. Safari parks may seem big to you, but they are still small cages for the large animals kept there, because the bigger the animals, the more space they require to have a normal life. Indeed, I remember seeing lions in UK safari parks pacing by the fence of their enclosure, as with other lions I have seen doing the same in tiny cages in inner city zoos. For captive lions, the fence is the source of their frustration, regardless of how big their cage is.

Perhaps one of the few places where we can see large cages may be particularly big low-security human prisons in some countries, but I think these types of cages may be rare for humans too. However, on average, humans imprisoned in developed countries may have bigger cages than non-human animals imprisoned in the same country. As far as the UK is concerned, when I did the study mentioned, I also calculated what would be the equivalent enclosure size for a human, considering the estimated minimal human home range. The results of my study suggest that if a human mostly living in a small village of about 1 Kilometre square was confined to a space with the same spatial restrictions that wild mammals kept in captivity have in UK zoological collections in 2001, this human would be living in a space approximately of the size of a telephone box, clearly much smaller than the average prison cell.

There may be big ranches that keep cows, bulls, or sheep on fields to graze, but remain fenced in. This may indeed be what I call large cages. Also, some farm animal sanctuaries may fall into this category too. The same could be said for wildlife parks that are fenced. However, once we reach the maximum home range size for the animals kept, I would no longer consider this captivity, as the animals may never reach the fence, and therefore may never realise that they live in a fenced area, and live their lives as if they were in the wild (this may be the situation of large natural reserves).

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