It's Otterly difficult to reconcile it all

The Dubai Mall is more than a place for selling goods, it is an establishment that also endeavors to sell experiences. The Dubai Aquarium inside the mall has all the traditional exhibits, but a visitor can also purchase the opportunity to have close interactions with the creatures contained within.

You can have an encounter with a giant crocodile, be lowered into a shark tank inside a cage to witness these mysterious creatures more closely, and I think I also saw on offer the opportunity to cavort with large aquatic rays, charming and personable creatures that they are.

None of these exotic encounters appealed to me all that much, but there was one I decided to purchase...the chance to be one of eight people to have an interaction with a family of otters. I've always found them to be interesting creatures, so I decided to purchase a ticket to the Otter Encounter.

The eight of us were led, at our appointed time, to the room in the aquarium complex where the small-clawed Asian otters were housed. We got to sit on benches in the back of the house where the babies lived and where the animals were trained and given special care.

The Otter Encounter started off well as we were able to watch the Otter Trainer feed the baby otters. But things quickly turned chaotic when the adults were introduced to our little room. The male otter, for some reason, found a young German woman to be highly objectionable and he leaped over the barrier and tried to attack her. Luckily she wasn't bitten, but the otter managed to shred the hem of her dress rather comprehensively with his razor-sharp teeth. It has been a theme of my life this year it seems: trapped in rooms I can't escape with highly agitated beings.

Luckily the trainer, using her clickers and a large supply of fish and clams, was able to lure the feisty otter back over the barrier to continue the Encounter. The rest of the event was as scripted, the otters did little tricks and played basketball and even were lured into posing with each and every one of us.

Then came the grand finale of the encounter, where the otters are lured to put their little claws through the holes near where we were sitting, so that we could touch their soft, yet lethal, little claws. Everyone seemed quite pleased to touch the otters; even the German woman, shredded dress and all, seemed satisfied that the Otter Encounter had been everything she had hoped it would be.

As much as like I otters, I left the Otter Encounter feeling less than overjoyed. Is a life in captivity, where one has to work quite intensely playing basketball and posing with tourists, somehow not more than a little bit exploitive of these spunky creatures? Can't we just leave them where they are in their natural homes? Must my fondness for otters be indulged so completely that I am entitled to touch their little claws, as long as I have enough money to pay for the encounter? Should I believe the Otter Trainer when she tells us that having the otters in captivity and the money that's raised by these activities is crucial toward preserving the entire species?

Somehow, the truth felt to me that it was contained in the shredded hem of the German woman's dress. I would rather we keep otters where they belong, and maybe we don't need to touch their claws, and perhaps we humans might be able to muster the resources and energy to preserve all the greatness of nature and the creatures contained within it, without having to force them to play basketball with us. Yes, it is hypocritical for me to make this pronouncement after I got to have my little Otter Encounter. But after having my Otter Encounter, I realized that the concept of empathy applies to all the beings we encounter and that we must consider how we respond to every creature of the Earth.