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?
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Keeping a wild animal caged and put on for show is abuse. What gives us the right to do this. We have been doing this forever with human beings. We did it to Indians, Blacks, Hispanics and now since there are laws against human slavery, we move on to helpless animals . We don't have the right to do this.
- dms61757
August 6, 2009 4:12PM
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Zoos Provide Education and Conservation
- From Jack Hanna
By Jack Hanna - Director Emeritus, Columbus Zoo
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The Scent of Injustice
A child shouldn't have to "smell an elephant" to learn about respect for animals. Parents and teachers should educate their children on the rights of animals to live freely in their natural habitat. Educational shows are a wonderful learning resource. Zoos are not.
Witnessing a polar bear roaming a concrete cube by a little dipping pool, cannot possibly contribute to an understanding of this animal's nature.
What a fine recreation: sitting in a trolley with a big gulp, cruising miserable animals in cages. And for the extreme athletes who cruise the zoo on foot: wow, what a work-out!
By this formula we can consider a circus bear riding a moped cultural education. Zoos showcase imprisoned animals for profit, let's educate ourselves about that reality.
- Citizen D July 28, 2008 1:50PM
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There is nothing like reality
...for teaching a lesson. Parents and teachers talking about mythical, hypothetical animals like "bears" and "elephants", reading stories about these allegedly magnificent creatures, seeing pictures of them... none of these experiences can even remotely begin to touch the experience of seeing these animals, live and up close. After all, you can hear stories, see pictures, and read documentation of unicorns and yeti, too. Zoos may not always have the perfect environments, but I'd rather keep a few bears in zoos so that humans will continue to protect them in the wild. For humans, out of sight is out of mind. People find it much easier to ignore and neglect the hypothetical. If seeing a magnificent panther caged helps to encourage people to protect wild spaces and advocate for wild animals, then I'm all for it. Seeing them in the wild is even better, but not many of us are so fortunate.
- locavore
February 25, 2009 6:21PM
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