The general purpose of a zoo is to educate, promote conservation, and provide amusement for people all over the world, but is that really what zoos are doing? Today, more than 10,000 zoos are in operation worldwide, and more than 7 million people attend a local zoo each year (Carey). The majority of people are convinced that zoos are helping animals and that the animals are content there, when in reality, animals are not treated properly. Zoos are harmful to animals and should be shut down because the conditions are poor, food lacks the proper nutrients, animals’ overall emotional and physical health is unsatisfactory, and the breeding programs and efforts to educate are ineffective.
Exotic animals, like those kept in captivity, have needs
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As a result, they take part in stress behaviors. It is not always easy to recognize stress behaviors in animals since most people have only seen them in captivity and not in the wild where they would behave as normal. Therefore, people think the way the animal acts in captivity is how it would act in the wild. Stress behaviors include things such as “repetitive movements, pacing, head bobbing, rocking back and forth, biting the bars of the enclosure or themselves, and excessively cleaning themselves” (Embar). What makes life so difficult in zoos, is that the animals do not have enough space or mental stimulation to keep themselves occupied. They have to stay in the same tiny enclosure for their whole life doing the same thing everyday. To prevent the animals from performing bad stress behaviors, some zoos place antidepressants in the animals’ food (Meinzer). The purpose of this is to curb the unhappiness that the animals feel. Depression and stress are most perceptible in the animals that get the most attention from people, like tigers, elephants, monkeys, lions, and bears. People exhibit an enormous impact on the behavior of the animals. Studies were conducted on penguins’ swimming habits in captivity and it was found that the penguins swam more in other parts of the enclosure than in the visitor area (Carey). Some animals can also succumb to traumatic stress disorder from immense amounts of …show more content…
Nearly all of people go to the zoo just for the visual appeal of the gorgeous animals. Little do they know that the animals there are not being treated properly. Since animals have little mental stimulation and activities to keep them occupied, zoos try to give animals different things to prevent mental deterioration, such as toys. To alleviate boredom caused by the small enclosures the animals are placed in, zoos are trying to renew and enlarge the enclosures, but it is not a secret that no matter what the zoos try to improve, animals simply do not do well in captivity. Zoos also take part in breeding programs. Breeding programs are used to try and bring the populations of endangered animals up to a substantial number. Animals in the enclosures will have offspring and the offspring will be released to the wild once they can survive on their own. Even though there are thousands of endangered species, sadly, zoos have only been able to return about 16 species to the wild (Embar). Success varies with each population. Most zoo animals released to the wild do not even survive. According to Wanda Embar, “this is because zoos do not provide the right environment for a successful captive breeding program”. This is another reason why zoos should be shut down. If they
He states that “Animals in zoos and aquariums can live longer, healthier, and richer lives than their forbearers ever did in the wild.” Studies have proven again and again that for most animals a caged life was a short and unhappy one. To begin with, for many species, a stare is received as a threat. With the public constantly staring at the animals, many of them become depressed. Scared and depressed animals might fill the hours with repetitive behaviors known as stereotypy: masturbating to a danger point, pacing their paws raw, or swaying endlessly from side to side (Cokal 492).
Have you ever seen an animal sitting in a cage all alone with nothing to do. Well, zoos are trying to change that fact. They will allow the animals to live in an environment that is like their home. Many people don't realize this, but zoo are keeping and breeding these animals because they would not survive in the wild alone. In the three passages, ¨The Stripes Will Survive,¨ ¨The Zood Go Wild from No More Dodos,¨ ¨Our Beautiful Macaws and Why They Need Enrichment.¨ All of these articles present one claim, that is that the role of zoos is no longer to keep animal, but to protect them.
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.
“Zoochosis” is a term used for the specific behaviors that animals in captivity get due to unstimulating or even small enclosures. These behaviors are usually repetitive and purposeless, like pacing and overgrooming. According to one study “the median
When people go on a trip to the zoo, it can be assumed that they do not think about much more than what they can see. Signals that make zoos unfair and sometimes unbearable for the captive animals are not visible to most spectators. This essay will explain how zoos are unjust and should not be supported. Animals should not be held captive due their negative behavioral changes, lack of natural habitat and the zoos failure to effectively preserve endangered species.
Animals can become depressed and lifeless when living in a zoo. They start showing unnatural behavior such as pacing and sleeping all the time.
Animal rights have become a very serious issue here in the United States over the last few decades. One issue that has been discussed is whether or not zoos serve a good purpose or are they just a torture chamber for the animals. Locked up in small cages so people can yell at them and stare. Or are zoos the key to save our species in an ever growing human population. Rachel Lu, a philosophy teacher and senior columnist, writes the article, “Let’s Keep Zoos: Learning stewardship is a good thing.”, published April 18, 2014, argues that zoos are worth keeping. Rachel Lu uses her personal experiences to appeal to her audience that zoos are valuable to people especially young children because it gives them a perspective on nature.
Animal cruelty is the abuse or failure to care for an animal. Before the past couple of years, people did not have to worry about how the animals in zoos were treated. For centuries, families have gone to zoos to be educated on the different species of animals. As years have gone by, zoos have become a trending topic of animal cruelty. While zoos do not physically abuse the animals, they have been known to not properly care for them. “According to the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA), there are over 10,000 zoos worldwide” (Fravel 2). Of these 10,000 zoos, only some of them actually care about their animals. Caring for wild animals is extremely hard because zoos have to recreate the animals’ natural habitat. Zoos believe that they are protecting the animals’, yet; they tend to forget how it affects the animals. In reality, the animals are depressed and bored. These wild animals are being taken out of their natural habitats and are enclosed in small cages and habitats. Wild animals should live in their natural habitats, the wild, not in a zoo for the entertainment of zoo visitors. Therefore, banning zoos will end the horrible cycle of animal cruelty.
Analysis of Argument for Ethical Zoos and How They Benefit Animals Due to the recent events in the Cincinnati Zoo, arguments have been sparked about the ethics of zoos. Most articles try to argue against zoos and closed environments, but there are those that still support zoos and the programs that they provide for endangered species. The argument “Zoos Are Not Prisons”? They Improve the Lives of Animals” focuses on the positives of animal enclosures and fights for support to keep zoos in business. The author, Dr. Robin Ganzert, ties examples of programs that zoos help create and what type of research is conducted in the zoos, to support his claims.
There are many places where people can go to see live animals such as aquariums, zoos, and safari parks. A pleasant way to define a Zoo is to call it “an establishment that maintains a collection of wild animals”. (Google def) Another way to say that is a facility in which animals are “enclosed in cages for public exhibition”. I believe zoos are ethical; however, changes need to be made to eliminate problems I have discovered. In this argumentative essay, I will be arguing the ethics of zoos and certain problems that need to be addressed that people are not aware of. Zoos are great places to take the family out for the day to have entertainment; however, problems such as captive breeding, length of life, and animal stress need to improve.
Zoos today say that one of their main goals is to conserve endangered species and eventually reintroduce them back into the wild. However, Benjamin Beck, former associate director of biological programs at the National Zoo in Washington, found that over the past century only 16 of 145 reintroduction programs worldwide ever actually restored any of the animals back to the wild (qtd. in Fravel). He also found that a majority was carried out by the government and not the actual programs themselves. Beck noted that the billions of dollars the zoos were receiving were going towards hi-tech exhibits and marketing strategies to get people to go to the zoos. So which zoos are actually attempting to save the lives they claim to be? According to David Hancocks, a former zoo director with 30 years’ experience, many zoos that are not affiliated with the AZA do not spend hardly any of their fu...
Since approximately 1250 B.C., ancient Egyptians had created and practiced the capture and display of animals in what are now known as zoos (Fravel). Records describe such exotic animals as birds, lions, giraffes, and tigers in captivity (Fravel). Since then, zoos have continued to entertain millions with the exciting chance to view exotic animals up close and personal. Even in ancient Greece, exotic animals were on display in fighting arenas, and in enclosed viewing areas. Originally in America, zoos were just created so that royalty and the wealthy could flaunt their exotic animals to the public (Leolupus). Today, with species threatened and habitats disappearing worldwide, zoos are serving a new purpose other than the mere exhibition of animals – conservation. (Fravel). When you think of a zoo, you either think of a fun, entertaining place that provides close-up and exciting exhibits of wild animals that you would otherwise never get the chance to see, or a place where people keep suffering, unhappy animals captive just for entertainment and display. However, despite whichever view you hold, and despite the stereotypes, some zoos have evolved to serve alternative and helpful purposes. Although some zoos face controversy due to allegations such as lack of space and quality care, neglect, and cruelty, some zoos have programs specifically designed to help and protect animal species. For example, these zoos have programs that help such conservation efforts as breeding.
Some people may argue that zoos protect animals and species under this polluted world, however, do animals in zoos really need our “help”? Yes, but surely not that many. According to Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS), 79% of animals in United Kingdom zoos and over 70% of elephants in European zoos are wild-caught. It seems that zoos need them rather than they need zoos.
"Do We Need Zoos?" : An All Creatures Animal Rights Article. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2015.
Zoo animals are usually kept in very cramped enclosures and do not behave like their wild counterparts. Polar bears, for example, are given about 10 metres of walking space whereas in their Arctic home they roam for many hundreds of kilometres. Similarly, primates, big cats and birds are often confined in cages where they lack exercise and stimulation. Many animals develop unnatural habits such as pacing back and forth or swaying from side to side.