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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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The Scent of Injustice
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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