Picture this- you live the first few years of your life happy with your family. You live in a nice house, your family is healthy, and you have a nice community of people around you. Then, out of nowhere, you are captured. You are scared- you do not know where you are, where you are going, or where your family is. After what seems like an eternity, you wake up in a small, dirty cage. The cage is just big enough for you to stand and walk eight paces. The cage is littered with trash and is just terrible smelling. You are alone, with nothing to do all day except for sit or sleep. You are hungry too; you have not been fed in a day or two. The only thing left to eat is the trash that bystanders throw into your cage. Obviously, this does not happen to humans in this time in America. But it is, however, happening to thousands of animals in Indonesia’s largest zoo. Animals are captured and are forced to live in the zoo’s harsh conditions, where they are overcrowded, underfed, and neglected. The Surabaya Zoo of Indonesia is a horrendous zoo with terrible conditions, and should be closed down due to the mistreatment of the zoo’s animals. The Surabaya Zoo, as disgusting as it is, sees a lot of tourists every day. Being the oldest and one of the most diverse zoos in the world, it is no surprise the zoo sees a lot of traffic. The zoo sees a ton of people each day; around 7,000 people show up to the zoo each day and about 40,000 people visit Surabaya on big holidays. (“Zoo Takes Terrible…”). Perhaps a reason the zoo sees so many tourists could be the cheap entrance prices. The tickets to get into Surabaya zoo only cost $2. (“Indonesian Zoo Shaken…”). That is quite different from the prices paid here in Indiana to get into Indianapolis’s zoo; we... ... middle of paper ... ...ty. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.” Works Cited "Death-Ridden Surabaya Zoo Pleads for Cash." The Jakarta Globe. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. "For Endangered Wildlife, This Indonesian Zoo Can Be Akin to a Death Sentence." GlobalPost. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. "Indonesian Zoo Shaken by Giraffe Death." Daily Herald. N.p., 14 Mar. 2012. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. "Indonesia's 'nightmare' Zoo." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 21 Oct. 0013. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. "Komodo Dragons Missing from Indonesian Zoo." BBC News. BBC, 22 Mar. 2011. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. "Time.com." NewsFeed The Disturbing State of Indonesias Zoo of Death Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. "The Worst Zoo in the World Keeps Going Downhill." DNews. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. "Zoo Takes Terrible Toll on Animals." The Sydney Morning Herald. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
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.
Since the recent event with a gorilla in the Cincinnati Zoo, people have questioned ethics. The author wrote this argument to explain why the safety of animals, as well as their survival in the future, depends on these enclosures. Some readers would accept that zoos and aquariums conduct a lot of research, but for those who are skeptical, the argument discusses that the “Zoological Society of London, for instance, is developing innovative methods to assess the risks of animals contracting disease when they are reintroduced into the wild” (2016, p. 2, para. 7). The effective evidence Ganzert brings in shows readers the benefits of zoos and aquariums in order to appeal to the value of the animals being well contained and protected while they are in the enclosures. Another strong example of Ganzert’s appeal to an audience that wants the facts is “The Phoenix Zoo helped lead the ensuing breeding and reintroduction programs, which ultimately birthed more than 200 calves from just nine individuals. Now between Oman and Jordan, there are about 1,000 Arabian Oryx living in the wild” (2016, p. 2, para. 4). In result, the audience receives information about an existing program as well as what has happened due to the creation of this program at the Phoenix Zoo.
Peoples Trust article “Zoos & Conservation” touched surface solely on zoos located in Britain. What about the rest of the world? Luckily there is a group called the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) that inspects zoos and aquariums making sure that they are fit for conservation. For instance, the Giza Zoo In Cairo was shut down for killing two gorillas that may have been infected with disease and for extra pay putting visitors in danger so they could pet any animal they requested. Now if one of these animals were to attack a visitor then they would put down the animal in which is just doing what its instincts tell them.
The first point of view from this issue is the side that believes humans, zoos and other facilities should be allowed to keep animals. The places that captivate animals believe that they are doing a favor to the creatures. They believe that they are saving them from being killed by humans. They say that if they would not have taken in these animals they would have died in the wild. They say they’re giving them a fresh new start and a place to live without worry. For example, in this article they state that zoos try and h...
The article ‘Bong Su is dead, broken by cramped and impoverished zoo conditions’ written by Peter Stroud and commented on by The Melbourne Zoo talks about the sudden death of Melbourne Zoo’s well known elephant Bong Su that was put to rest by euthanasia as a result of his extensive pain caused by Arthritis . There is a debate on whether the conditions Bong Su was exposed to, gave rise to a worsened arthritis which led to his euthanization. Both Peter Stroud and The Melbourne Zoo, provide insights into their personal experience with Bong Su attempting to inform readers and persuade them to believe and in extension support their arguments. Peter Stroud who wrote this article for the age uses a passionate tone and negative connotation to convince
The debate on storing animals in zoos became controversial, and I came to the final decision that animals do not deserve to live in zoos. Animals are meant to live in their natural habitat, just as humans thrive in their naturally industrialized environment. Living in captivity can also cause the animal’s lifespan to decrease, and it may be due to the failure to satisfy their emotional needs. Human interaction to wildlife and its animals is every expanding, and this probably makes manmade disasters the main cause of the transaction of wild animals from the wild to zoos. On the other hand, zoos have the potential to raise awareness and the support from public donations to fund animal conservation projects, but people do not need to physically see an animal provide their support. Since there are many solutions to this debate, there is no direct answer. From a wild animal’s point of view, humans may be seen as immoral beings with countless evil intentions. What they do not realize is that we have the potential to do good and make big, positive
"Do We Need Zoos?" : An All Creatures Animal Rights Article. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2015.
Zoos have been with us throughout our history, and can provide a good barometer of public beliefs and values at any given time. Therefore it seems necessary to explore whether in today’s society contemporary zoos are a means of educating and conserving or still seek to control and exhibit animal others for human benefit. In order to make this assessment there are a number of contributing factors. Firstly it is important to establish context by considering the history of zoos and looking at the changes from the early menageries to contemporary zoos who strive to be institutions of refuge for animals facing twenty-first century global challenges. This links into how the physical space of zoos has changed over time and whether these advancements have made any crucial difference to the welfare of animals. Following this conservation, education and scientific research will be explored in detail in order to assess whether they provide good enough motives for keeping animals in captivity. I will seek to argue that although attempts have been made to point zoos in the direction of conservation and education, in my opinion the concepts of dominance and human superiority are still at the core of modern zoos.
“The Reality of Zoos” written by Michelle Carr works to exploit the ethical travesties of Zoos to the general society and advocate for stricter law enforcement for protecting animals. Carr persuades the reader that “captive animals are deprived of everything that is natural and important to them,” thereby denouncing Zoos and all they stand for. Carr attempts to expose the cruelty of zoos by describing the “artificial environments” these once while animals must unwillingly endure. Carr employs harsh, to-the-point language to convey her opinion and to evoke a sense of guilt out of all
Lemonick, Michael D. “Who Belongs in the Zoo?” Time. Time, 11 June 2006. Web. 12 Dec.
Although they were legal laws to protect the orangutans in Indonesia since 1931, they are still being captured from the wild and kept in houses as status symbols. In some regions, the Sumatrans were hunted for food. Research by traffic, the global wildlife monitoring network shows that the lack of the illegal profit taking causes a serious hazard to orangutans. Female orangutans give birth only to one infant at a time, to either every eight or every nine years. Scientists estimate that only 1% of females orangutans have been l...
Most people think that zoos protect animals, but it can clearly be seen in the records provided by the Times that the zoos are doing the exact opposite of protecting animals. The American zoos, including the accredited ones, have led to the near demise of elephants. As if that alone isn’t enough to prove that zoos are cruel and unfair, there are many professionals and experts who gravely look down upon zoos too. Delcianna Winders, director with the PETA foundation, said “Renowned oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau reported that...
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.
Villanen, I. (2014). Food for Surabaya Zoo animals in East Java, Indonesia. Retrieved from https://www.change.org/petitions/food-for-surabaya-zoo-animals-in-east-java-indonesia
The zoo is an unnatural environment that exposes animals to numerous dangers. Diseases often spread between species that would never live together naturally. For example, many Asian elephants have died in US zoos after catching herpes from African elephants. Furthermore, zoo animals are often exposed to chemicals, solvents and other toxic substances. Finally, it is common for visitors to tease and provoke caged animals.