Argumentative Essay On Animal Captivity

Everyday, everywhere around the world, animals are being held captive. Captivity deprives animals of the life that they deserve and could have carried out in the wild peacefully. Today, zoos, aquariums, and circuses are very popular places of interest due to the entertainment offered for families and especially children. Zoos, aquariums, and circuses put on entertaining shows to show off their talented, cute, and interesting animals. Although, what most people do not realize is the fact that these animals are put under a tremendous amount of stress and usually suffer from depression, boredom, illnesses, or other terrible factors. For example, whales in the wild swim 100 miles a day in the ocean, while in captivity they are living in a pool that is so small it is like living in a bathtub. Today, zoos often portray that they are trying to educate people on animals and their habitat, attitude, and skills. However, seeing animals in the zoo is not going to educate anyone about how the species lives because people are only going to see captive, cramped, and depressed animals. Many people in today's society believe that animal captivity is indeed a fantastic way to keep animals protected, well fed, and happy. Well, they have been

Unfortunately, those beliefs are quite contrary to how she really felt. In Ric O'Barry's book, “Behind Dolphin’s Smiles”, O’Barry says that “The smiles you see on these animals are not true reflections of happiness.” Ric O’Barry then goes on to explain that dolphins are not actually happy, they just smile constantly. O’Barry also talks about how dolphins do not even get fed until it is time for them to put on their shows and do tricks. Flipper was a very unhappy dolphin and so one day she actually committed suicide. She took a deep breath of air and never came back up for another. Unfortunately, she