Zoo Should Be Prohibited

A zoo or a zoological garden is usually an outdoor area where live animals are kept in cages or large enclosures. A zoo will exhibit a variety of animal species, some which would normally reside in different climates and environments, brought in from all over the world to provide entertainment for people. However, contrarily to the individuals who are enjoying watching them, the animals are unhappy, and they suffer. Therefore, this essay will argue why zoos should be prohibited. The elements that will be discussed are the possibility of animals being harmed by the public or the zoo’s staff; how captivity can be detrimental to an animal’s health; and why zoos hinder animal preservation initiatives.

Firstly, keeping animals in zoos should be illegal because zoo owners and visitors occasionally mistreat the animals. A situation that illustrates this brutality is when sixty-four of seventy-one guinea pigs died at Edmonton Valley Zoo on Mai 25, 2010 subsequent to someone intentionally placing poisoned oranges in the rodent’s cages. Another incident that exemplifies this harmful conduct is when an autopsy performed March 2, 2012, on a giraffe that recently passed away at Surabaya Zoo in Indonesia revealed a 20-kilogram piece of plastic in the animal’s stomach. The plastic lump, which had a diameter of 60 centimetres, appeared to be food wrappers thrown by zoo visitors as well as garbage that had blown into the giraffe’s stall. This improperly disposed trash was a serious choking hazard for the giraffe; hence, this demonstrates that visitors and zoo staff sometimes neglect their responsibility of ensuring that the animals Hibbert 2

have a safe environment to reside in. Furthermore, from January to March 2010, eleven S...

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...ironment.

In conclusion, zoos should be illegal because the animals held captive are sometimes improperly cared for or killed by the zoo’s visitors or staff; their mental health deteriorates; and zoos interfere with animal protection efforts. Although some zoos claim to study the animals, these creatures are kept in artificial environments; thus, the results obtain by the observations will be inaccurate. Also, other zoos say they are protecting species from extinction; however, most animals in zoos are not endangered, so it can be assumed that they were chosen because they attract a lot of visitors. Clearly, zoo owners are more concerned with receiving a profit than caring for the animal’s they have imprisoned. Therefore, it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that animals are respected and treated adequately because they are unable to do so themselves.