Should Animals be Kept in Zoos?

Should Animals be Kept in Zoos?

For many people, the zoo is a source of childhood amazement and fond memories: swinging monkeys, laughing hyenas and growling tigers. Conservationists say zoos advance their educational and preservationist efforts, but others see zoos as prisons where innocent creatures are unjustly held captive. The next time your child asks you to take them to the zoo, what will your answer be?

Next question in Animal Rights

  • “No”
  • “Objection”
PETA

Zoos Propagate Rather Than Educate

PETA

Zoos claim to provide educational opportunities, but most visitors spend only a few minutes at each display, seeking entertainment rather than enlightenment. Over the course of five summers, a curator at the National Zoo followed more than 700 zoo visitors and found that “it didn’t matter what was on display … people [were] treating the exhibits like wallpaper.” He determined that “officials should stop kidding themselves about the tremendous educational value of showing an animal behind a glass wall.”

The purpose of most zoos is to find ways to breed and maintain more animals in captivity. The Chinese government, for example, “rents” pandas to zoos worldwide for fees of more than $1 million per year, but some question whether the profits are being directed toward panda-conservation efforts at all. Protecting species from extinction sounds like a noble goal, but for the most part, animals bred in captivity, including threatened and endangered wildlife, cannot be released to the wild because they never have the opportunity to learn important survival skills. Some animals also pick up diseases at zoos that could endanger wild populations.

Evidence

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Naked Ape New Zoo Attraction; Surprise Results From People-Watching...
William Booth, The Washington Post 14 Mar. 1991.
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Critics Question China’s Worldwide Panda Profit
The Age 5 Apr. 2003.
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  • Jack Hanna
    Jack Hanna is the director emeritus for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and host of “Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild” and “Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures.”... More

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