Should Animals be Kept in Zoos?

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Life in captivity is so miserable that it’s inconceivable that we are “helping” animals by confining them and denying them everything that comes naturally to them. Even animals born in captivity still have the innate desire to move about and roam freely—for far greater distances than zoos can provide—to seek out mates and friends, and to engage in natural behaviors, like flying, swimming, hunting, climbing, scavenging, and raising families, that aren’t possible in a zoo.
 
Take elephants, for example. In the wild, baby elephants stay with their devoted mothers for many years—males for up to 15 years, and females, their entire lives. Elephants are highly social animals who thrive in matriarchal herds, protecting each other, caring for orphaned babies, and traveling up to 30 miles a day to maintain their health and well being. In captivity, these complex and multifaceted emotional relationships are left in tatters.
 
The wild isn’t “wild” to the animals who live there—it’s their home. If wildlife as we know it is to survive, the primary focus must shift from collections of animals in zoos to habitat preservation in the wild. Keeping animals in cages—in zoos or any animal display—has no positive affect whatsoever on fostering respect for animals in the wild. They are still hunted, poached, displaced, captured for display and otherwise decimated.