Persuasive Essay About Zoos

Thousands of individuals everyday go to zoos across the country and around the world to simply observe wild animals sealed in captivity. Many people enjoy this form of entertainment but rarely do people question; where did these animals come from; and how did they get there? Some would say in defense that zoos provide a safe home for the animals or that they’re trying to educate the population. This paper will argue that zoos do not offer amusement, education, scientific research, or preservation and why all zoos should be shut down.

In most cases, zoos can be more dangerous for the animal than in the wild. Many animals from different parts of the world are being put into one facility. The animals are then being introduced to diseases that

Does pleasure justify keeping a wild animal barred in a cage only for the purpose of entertaining humans? Animals have been kept in captivity from the Roman Empire to ancient Egypt as they originated as displays of power by monarchs. As time has passed, our techniques of storage have advanced but clearly our morals have not. Forcing a creature to live in an unnatural environment for all of its life cannot be a source of pleasure anymore. “Many animals that have been kept in captivity take on traits that wild animals do not, such as pacing back and forth and rocking their body side to side.” (Jamieson). If most zoos claim that their main purpose isn’t to amuse audiences but to preserve the animals and learn from them, then why are they being treated like a science experiment? When you compare the numbers between animals living freely in the wild compared to in zoos, the difference is shocking. In the wild, an elephant can live up to 70 years but when compared to the average for a captive kept elephant, the average is only 40 years. The significant difference 30 years of a life can be should be enough to convince people, right? In the wild, elephants live in groups of up to 100 and are very social animals. In captivity, most are kept in groups of 2 or 3 and in some cases alone due to the high cost or space restrictions. Being kept alone in a small enclosure is torture for the animals. A zoo more

In fact, many zoos have to employ outside researchers to study the animals in the zoo but in most cases, the researchers prefer to observe the animals in the wild and not in zoos. Behavioral research in zoos is argued to offer no educational benefits due to the conditions. Conditions in zoos permit some research as the environments offer a predation-free setting which is not found in the wild. This can also be a bad thing as studying an animal that is in captive with no predators can yield inaccurate data. These animals will not act natural in an environment with no predators. Zoos study animals for their sake and ours. Zoos are studying animals in captivity in an attempt to make conditions better for the animals and to try extend their life expectancy. Some would argue this research is pointless as the conditions presented to the animals are subpar and the life expectancy of most animals is significantly lowered while in living in a zoo. Zoos studying animals for human sake are aiming to contribute to human health, many say that this is pointless as there are very strict restrictions on research experiments on zoo animals. These experiments are not aiding to the conservation of these animals but the killing of thousands each