Kicking a Camel When It's Down: Hipster Elitist Mocks the Reston Zoo

Much as the national media has converged on the meth capital of Alaska of late, some absinthe-swilling elitist from the now-bankrupt Washington City Paper managed to get away from his rat-infested hip pied-a-terre somewhere off U Street long enough to take a field trip to the awesome Reston Zoo.

On the Zoofari ride, Reston’s uniqueness as an animal experience becomes more pronounced. Snappy detached homes loom above the basin in which bison, deer, camels, and other ruminants run free; their yards end in high chain link fences, as much to prevent animal intrusions as to keep barbecues from getting out of hand.

What I didn’t see much of was zookeepers; the AZA and the USDA both insist that “animal contact areas should always be supervised by a trained zoo representative” but this does not appear to be the policy at Reston.

We decided to skip the pony rides, figuring that at this point we’d racked up enough karmic debt for the day. The gift shop is very nice, though.

We think the author was making fun of the awesome Reston Zoo, but he used subtle elitist literary techniques like "sarcasm" that those of us who live outside the Beltway aren't able to process.

Maybe we don’t live in some vaguely urine-soaked edgy neighborhood near Adams Morgan and therefore can’t walk to the National Zoo, but when you go see animals there, do you see them in their real natural habitat -- surrounded by a bunch of monstrous yet dishearteningly vinyl-sided paperboard McMansions?

We think not.