A Case Against Zoo Research Paper

Another not so obvious case against zoos is the physical risks involved for the animals. Animals can contract human diseases from visitors from the zoo. For example, apes are susceptible to influenza, measles, and tuberculosis from humans. Stephen St. C. Bostock wrote in Zoos and Animal Rights, “An animal can also be exposed in a zoo to infections that it wouldn’t face in the wild…Primates especially apes, can catch tuberculosis and measles from humans” (Bostock, 67).Taranjit Kahr reported more about respiratory diseases in, “Descriptive Epidemiology of Fatal Respiratory Outbreaks and Detection of a Human-Related Metapneumovirus in Wild Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Mahale Mountains National Park, Western Tanzania”: “Over the past several years, acute and fatal respiratory illnesses have occurred in the habituated group of wild chimpanzees at the Mahale National

While it is true for the most part that animals are being well taken care of in zoos, animals are wild; therefore, they can take care of themselves in the wild. Also in the wild, animals live in packs and groups, so they can socialize with similar species. Once again, I am going to use the example of elephants from Last Chance for Animals to demonstrate. In the wild, elephants live in huge family packs, with as many as 100 members. They get very emotionally attached to these family members, and have even been seen crying when a family member has passed. In captivity, these animals only live with 2 or 3 other elephants at maximum. Often, they do not even get to properly bond because by the time they become acquainted zoos move animals around. Sadly sometimes, they even live alone (Last Chance for Animals). In my eyes, taking these animals away from their social groups equates to humans being forced to leave their friends and family and never seeing them