Many zoos today say their main purpose is breeding endangered species in captivity and reintroducing them into the wild (Masci, D., 2000, April 28). Zoos have many benefits, not just for the animals themselves, but also the humans who can enjoy them. People, as a whole, are becoming increasingly distant from nature as we move to bigger cities and away from the wildlife. For many, real experiences with wild animals can only be found in zoos (Masci, D., 2000, April 28). With education comes recognition and worry.
Zoos help to maintain consistency in animal life, they are not destroying it. There are many people who have destroyed an animal 's natural habitat, by cutting down trees and dirtying their water sources. Thus, making it extremely difficult for the animal to find food and causes them to starve. Animals train their young ones how to survive on their own and if the parent of the young animal is deceased or out of sight it will not survive. This is when the decision is made for humans to raise and take care of the animals that have been left behind.
Without the help of zoos many more species will disappear never to be seen again. Zoos are not only important to the animals held captive but to future wildlife as well because they give animals a safe place to live and help prevent extinction. Zoos provide protection and comfort animals need to thrive. For the animals comfort, zoos have started to build exhibits as similar as possible to the animals’ natural habitat (“Zoos”).These natural exhibits stimulate the animals, which allows for more natural behavior. The animals’ natural behaviors and comfortable exhibits allow the public to observe and learn from these interesting animals, while the animals live a life of luxury that would not be possible in the wild.
Breeding programmes are the main function of zoos, by reproducing species for our future generations, we are conserving animals. Some may say though that we should be leaving these animals alone to live their lives, no matter if it’s a short or long one. It’s a breach of their natural rights to use them for our own purposes, and the human race has done enough for these poor animals. I personally think that the zoos breeding programmes are a bad idea they have a very low success rate and by the end of the programme the animal hasn’t got the characteristics of what the animal born in wild would have, so it’s just a waste of time. Zoos where animals are fed well and looked after properly with nice surroundings should be encouraged throughout the world and in most zoos this is the standard they go by.
In The Art of the Cage, a saying is mentioned “to find enrichment is to sometimes have no enrichment at all.” This translates to how an animal in captivity may not be fed for a period of several days. By having animals in cages and separating them from a mate, parent, or offspring it gets them ready for the wild. In the wild the animal needs to endure hardships that it may face. While the animal has these hardships it gives them endurance, self-sufficiency, and survival instincts. In the past people collected animals has a way to express themselves with the gods to be closer.
People do not realize the harm zoos do to animals. Zoos throughout the world should be banned due to their unethical practices; they cause animals mental distress, place them in unnatural habitats, and do little to conserve species in danger of extinction. Zoos should be banned because they cause animals mental distress. To the public’s eye zoos are a sanctuary; animals are free of wild predators and vets are available at any sign of disease, but even with these luxury features animals are still suffering. Captive animals suffer from a conditioned called, zoochosis.
Animals live longer in zoos or captivity because they are in hands of veterinarians who specialize in the study of animals and their health. As well as, the animals don’t have to go through a lack of food, diseases that spread from animal to animal, and natural disasters that happen throughout the world (animals). In a zoo animals can avoid bullying and social ostracism that happens out in the wild. An example is when a member of that species group cannot keep up with the others, so they are left behind and end up dying (member). Zoos do not only keep the animals safe and breed them to make their population grow but also, let scientist and veterinarians learn more about them to help the others in the wild (zoos).
One of the major claims that zoos make is that they take part in animal conservation and breeding of endangered species. Zoos claim they are saving threatened species and preparing them for release back into their natural habitats. What most don’t know is that zoos merely maintain, and seldom improve an animal’s welfare. The truth is only about 2% of zoo animals in breeding programs are actually endangered and even less are likely to be released back into the Quintero 2 wild. Zoos mainly have and breed animals they think people will most be attracted to, thus increasing revenue.
However, it has been shown that that is not the case. Many animals experience a lack of biosecurity and cross-contamination with diseases from the other animals they are in facilities with, that they would never encounter in the wild. Zoos and Animal Rights: The Ethics of Keeping Animals by Stephen St C. Bostock, who is a Zoological Education Officer at Glasgow Zoological Gardens in Scotland, discusses that there is an idea that zoos and aquariums will prevent animals from contracting diseases and it will keep them healthier than they would be in the wild, but that is not always the case. Bostock says that the stress of being captured and transported can make the animal more prone to a serious parasitic infection. On the other hand, he says that some animals are better off in zoos because they have infections or conditions that they would die from in nature.
Animal rights groups feel that animals feel as much pain as humans do, and they suffer when they are kept in cages for long periods of time. An amount of animal research is done for Products, not to find cures for diseases so this is not necessary. Finally, it has also been said that humans can get all the nutrients and vitamins they need from vegetables and fruit. Therefore having to kill animals f... ... middle of paper ... ...eat animals wrongly and falsely. Also PETA has been changing the way people view animal’s abuse by teaching and sharing about Animal rights.