Zoos and Aquariums: A Barbaric Institution

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Recommended: Views on animal captivity

The practice of keeping wild animals in a zoo or aquarium is looked at favorably in most aspects but what we fail to realize is that we have placed animals which at one point lived freely in wide open spaces into captivity. Society is assuming these animals are happy to be taken from their natural habitat and placed in pens and cages because they have every need handed to them. David Suzuki asked “What gives us the right to exploit other living organisms as we see fit?” (681). Through selfishness, people have justified zoos and aquariums to be an educational benefit to children, to help them learn about animals, their individuality and where they come from. Zoos and Aquariums are for society’s personal entertainment not for the good of the animals and should be closed down.

The entertainment value does not contradict the morals of taking a wild animal and caging it, so we can stare at it for a few minutes. I will be honest, I love being able to take my kids to the zoo and aquarium. We enjoy walking around looking at all the exotic animals that cannot be seen while walking around the local park. The animal’s personalities and temperaments we see at the zoos is hardly the animal they would be in the wild. The visual education we are receiving is altered and therefore, false. Imagine you are put in a room very similar to your own, with your best friend or spouse, and you were told to behave ‘normally’. You can dance, laugh, talk, play, anything, but you will be watched by an estimated 5,000 people a day. No one would see the true you; the same goes for wild animals. We are able to have a better understanding of animals in their natural habitat rather than a miniature version filled with artificial objects in the local zoo or aquari...

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...ture and use of wild animals.

Works Cited

“Captive.” The New American Webster Handy College Dictionary. 3rd Edt. 1995. Print

Caulfield, Philip. “Chimps bite zookeeper's fingers off in vicious ape house attack” NYDailyNews.com. 16 January 2011. Web

Diamond, Jared. “Guns, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years”. London: Vintage, 2005. Print

Jett, John S. and Ventre, Jeffrey M. “Keto & Tilikum Express the Stress of Orca Captivity” TheOrcaProject.com. February 2011. Web

Rubenstein, Steve. “Tiger kills San Francisco Zoo patron, injures two others” San Francisco Chronicle. 26 December 2007. Print

Suzuki, David. “The Pain of Animals.” Taken from The Broadview Reader 3rd ed. Ed. Herbert Rosengarten and Jane Flick. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 1998. Print.

Venezia, Todd. “Gal Crushed by Elephant” NYPost.com. 16 January 2011. Web

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