Cruelty in captivity: an analysis of zoos BY SASHA WALLACE

There are different zoos  There are good zoos, and there are bad zoos.  Bad zoos give zoos a bad name  Having animals in cages, barely keeping them alive for viewers pleasure  Good zoos do a lot of good  They do their best to make the animals as happy as possible  Have research, conservation, and education as top goals  Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) provides basis for animal wellbeing  Although only 212 of the 2400 registered zoos have the AZA license

Zoos and their conservation efforts  Zoos keep many animals that are extinct in the wild, and then reintroduce them. This has happened for animals such as:  Cheetah  California Condor (was less then a dozen, then reintroduced and now over 100 exist in the wild)  Pere davids deer  Karner Blue butterfly  Red wolf (was culled to the point of extinction, but the zoos released many and now there are over 100 in the wild, and 200 in zoos)

BUT…  Of the 145 conservation efforts, only 16 were truly successful  This is still 16 better then what would happen otherwise  Zoos also rescue orphaned animals or animals that were badly treated at circuses etc and try to reintroduce them to their environment

Education  Zoos provide education about the animals they have  Inspire people to also conserve animals  Kids get closer to animals then ever would otherwise  Tests show people are very ignorant  34% could not name an environmental issue in the ocean  But…  Tests show that many visitors don’t pay much attention to the exhibits, simply talk about other matters and move on  Yet this is mostly the adults who have done this all before

Research  Zoos provide the easiest way to study animals  Each year, multiple zoos participate in over 1000 studies  Research helps to further the wellbeing of the animals And now for the animals…

Pros  Zoo animals get many benefits from being in zoos:  Medical help  Food  Temperature fluctuations  And they lack:  Predators  The risk of starvation  Disease (or at least far less of it)

Cons  The main con that is most cited is the lack of space and freedom an animal has in their cage  Some do get zoochosis (obsessive and repetitive behaviors)  Some zoo enclosures can be very bad for animals and lack food and space

Freedom  Elephants, in the wild, do travel hundreds of miles. They cannot do this when they are in an enclosed exhibit  They travel those hundreds of miles to find food, not because they enjoy a nice stroll.  In a zoo, all the food is right there so they don’t need to travel all that way  Humans used to also walk very far each day  Then we got houses, with all our food a few steps away  If you went up to a house, kicked open the front door, and shooed them out into the streets, telling them that they are free, they may act a little disgruntled.

exercise  We exercise, and so do animals in captivity  Zoos being in treadmills  Also toys etc to stimulate though