Humans Love to assert their "dominance" and "power" over all living things in their futile attempt to take "control" over the natural world in which humans think they are separate from, when they are in fact part of. One-way humans do this is through the use of cages. The use of cages by humans goes back to the early days of recorded human history. It is certain that if something is alive, humans will try to cage it, which includes other humans. It's almost certain that if it were possible humans would cage God himself just to prove they could.
Throughout human history, humans have utilized the use of cages in the form of human zoos, animal zoos, and prisons. Humans also like to have pets that they keep in cages ranging from animals and rodents, to birds, to reptiles and amphibians. Humans cage fish and aquatic creatures in aquariums. Humans put plants in garden cages and even put a rock in a cage in the form of a pet rock. There isn't anything that humans aren't willing to put in a cage.
Why do humans exhibit this bizarre behavior? Somewhere along the chain of human existence, came this idea that humans are separate from the environment in which they live. We can see this theory within religion. The majority of people in the world practice Abrahamic religions with the three major religions being Judaism, Christianity, and Islam with a plethora of minor religions that have branched off of the major religions. Most of the Abrahamic religions use the Torah which includes the creation story where human falls from grace and are cast out of the garden of Eden.
Humans believe themselves to be separate from the world in which they live which leads to the belief that since they are separate, that they can also be "better than" the rest of the world and everything within it. Imagine your kidney declaring it's separateness from your body and then your kidney believing that is it better than the rest of your organs and then deciding to cage up your other organs in an attempt to show it's "dominance." We may laugh at this absurd example, but it's not very far off from what humans are actually doing every day. Humans are simply one organ within the body of earth. Through humans grandiose egoic design, we try to "control", "fix", "regulate", and "conserve" all other parts of the earth.
The human body has a built-in immune system which protects it from infections. Yet humans don't think that the earth itself has an immune system. Humans believe they have to take control of the earth and everything within it in order to "save" it. Humans refuse to see the earths immune system working all the time as it would shatter their belief that they are the most important thing to ever exist. Humans fail to see how storms, plagues, natural disasters, and disease are, all part of the earths immune system. The earth knows how to take care of itself in the same way our body knows how to take care of itself.
We were able to see the earth do a miraculous recovery during the days of the Covid lockdowns. Humans went into lockdown and the world all around us started to recover. Pollution started to clear up and animals showed up in places where they had never been. The earth knows how to take care of itself and doesn't need us to "fix" it or to "save" it. If we would stop trying to take control of everything, the earth would let us live in peace and harmony. As long as we keep trying to control the earth and everything in it, the earths immune system will keep putting us in our place.
Humans' belief that they are all there is, instead of just one part of a much bigger body is what leads to the use of cages along with all other methods of humans attempt at "control". Humans have been utilizing cages since the beginning and where has it gotten us? There are more than 10.35 million people incarcerated throughout the world. 6,000,000 living animals are estimated to live in captivity for human entertainment. What benefits do humans actually receive from the use of cages? What benefits do any species receive from the use of cages? What have humans accomplished with the use of cages? What would a world without cages be like?
No living being deserves to be in a cage! That shouldn't be a controversial statement, but here we are. As long as you believe that any living being deserves to be in cage, you are saying that you yourself deserves to be in a cage because you are not separated from the world in which you live, you are part of it. If any part of the whole is deserving of something, then every part of the whole is deserving of the same thing. Imprison another and you yourself will be imprisoned. Live and let live. Love and Peace!