Zoo Argumentative Essay

Zoos attract hundreds of thousands visitors every year that range from newborns to the elderly as they tend to fascinate and provide entertainment for them. Although zoos provide enjoyment of a lifetime there are people who defend that zoos are not as exceptional as they seem. Through many controversies, organizations such as “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals” have arised advocating zoos are not beneficial to communities but in fact harmful, yet advocates that zoos are beneficial counter them. The members of PETA argue that the animals in zoos and suffer immensely from poor physical and mental health. On the contrary, promoters of zoos say that many species are saved from going extinct through zoo's extensive help in species-survival

Millfield School graduate Damian Aspinall in a newspaper article for the Daily Mail argues, “ In the wild, these creatures roam hundreds of miles. They hunt their prey, raise their offspring and enjoy complex social relationships … Little wonder they develop self-­destructive behaviours known as 'zoochosis' - repetitively walking in tight circles, rocking, swaying and sometimes mutilating themselves … All too often they are left on permanent display with nowhere to hide. They have no shade, little shelter, no privacy at all … If zoos are really being honest with the public about their motives, why are 75 per cent of the animals they keep not even endangered?” (1-3). Zoos are shown as having a

In an article Jeremy Hooper, University of Tennessee graduate and advocate of the Red Wolf Species Survival Plan explains, “The AZA approved the red wolf for the SSP program in 1984, leading to the development of a new management plan to ensure the persistence of a ‘healthy, genetically diverse, and demographically varied captive population’ … The Red Wolf Species Survival Plan (RWSSP) initiated a network of facilities across the country with a common goal of restoring the red wolf to its native range. This network provided more space for housing red wolves, increased opportunities for breeding and research, and a broader outreach campaign ... In 1987, ten years after the first pups were born in captivity and seven years after the species was declared biologically extinct in the wild, eight red wolves were released into Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina”(2-4). This one example is a part of many successful species-survival programs that are orchestrated by organizations of zoos. The red wolf was a species that became extinct in the wild. Since they were extinct in the wild that proves that zoos were beneficial to the community because rather than going completely extinct they were instead reintroduced in the wild with zoos help. Reintroducing a species as no small feat either.