Why Do Animals Live In Zoos

909 Words2 Pages

Just recently, eighteen Swaziland elephants were transported to their new homes in America. This included the Henry Doorly zoo in Nebraska, the Dallas Zoo, and the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas. These elephants were destroying the habitats of other species, and this relocation was specifically made to preserve Swaziland’s endangered rhino population. In gratitude the zoos will “contribute $450,000 to a wildlife conservation trust for rhinos in Swaziland” (Hinckley, par. 2). The result of the transfer produced many opposing views among conservationists. This raised the question of whether or not the elephants (or any animal) should be kept in zoos. This is a widely popular, yet difficult debate of ethical and statistical views. For this case, …show more content…

The debate on storing animals in zoos became controversial, and I came to the final decision that animals do not deserve to live in zoos. Animals are meant to live in their natural habitat, just as humans thrive in their naturally industrialized environment. Living in captivity can also cause the animal’s lifespan to decrease, and it may be due to the failure to satisfy their emotional needs. Human interaction to wildlife and its animals is every expanding, and this probably makes manmade disasters the main cause of the transaction of wild animals from the wild to zoos. On the other hand, zoos have the potential to raise awareness and the support from public donations to fund animal conservation projects, but people do not need to physically see an animal provide their support. Since there are many solutions to this debate, there is no direct answer. From a wild animal’s point of view, humans may be seen as immoral beings with countless evil intentions. What they do not realize is that we have the potential to do good and make big, positive

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