Persuasive Essay Zoos

How would you feel if you were turned into an entertainment act and had hundreds of people watching your every move? Throughout time animals have been seen as entertainment objects and not as the wild species they should be viewed as. Animal rights activist have tried to help the animals being used for entertainment and help bring notice to what animals go through on a daily basis. Animal shows have been a great form of entertainment, but the animals involved do not deserve the cruelty they are put through. Zoos do not protect the dignity of the animals under their care. The species spend their lives trapped behind glass walls and cages. People who argue that cages make animals “better off” send a message similar to “‘who needs the wild when we have zoos?’” (Munro). Although these zoo habitats appear similar to the species’ natural environments, zoos cannot possibly provide the numerous challenges that the animals would encounter in the wild—challenges that wild animals intuitively know how to overcome. Zoos also describe

Although governments have instituted laws against the abuse of animals, these modern-day forms of animal entertainment still employ inhumane methods.(Wiggins) Defenders of these practices cannot possibly argue with the fact that the use of animals for entertainment is completely unnecessary. Unlike the use of animals in science and agriculture, which clearly benefits humans and even some of the animals, the use of animals as displays and performers does nothing but fill human leisure time. As they provide humans with amusement and distraction, these forms of entertainment assert human dominion over all other animal species. Supporters of zoos, circuses, and rodeos cannot justify the use of animals for entertainment because it destroys animals’ dignity and strips them of their fundamental rights as living