Zoos Thoughout the World

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Families strolling, children squealing with glee, and adults gazing with interest; A typical day at the zoo. Animal-lovers rush throughout zoos in search of their favorite feline or lizard, while children smack on popcorn as they tap on glass enclosures. For hundreds of years people have gone to zoos in seek of entertainment. The zoo provides a fun and educational time for families, but the joy of seeing adorable creatures blinds spectators from seeing the pain zoo animals live with. 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. Zoochosis causes animals to behave abnormally such as, repeatedly pacing, excessive grooming, rocking, swaying, and self-mutilation (“The Reality of Zoos”). Zoochosis in captive animals prove zoos put animals in mental distress. Although zoos do protect animals from wildlife dangers, they cause them new unusual health problems that they would not be suffering with in the wild. Evidently captive animals are going mad in their enclosures. Zoos provide animals food, causing a disservice to them. Stephen Bocstock, the education officer for Glasgow Zoo, expresses that the search and hunt for food makes an animals life complete (Bocstock 70). Food is an animals central drive, without that purp...

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...e meaningless lives. The minimal efforts that zoos put into the conservation of endeared species typically fail, due to lack of commitment and knowledge. Thousands of beautiful creatures are wasting away in zoos instead of roaming in the wild, making it evident for the banishment of Zoos throughout the world.

Works Cited

Bostock, Stephen St. C. Zoos and Animal Rights: The Ethics of Keeping Animals. London: Routledge, 1993. Print.
Carr, Michelle. "The Reality of Zoos." PETA.org. N.p., Feb. 2013. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
Draper, Chris, and David Jay. "Do Zoos Help Conservation?" Born Free Foundation. N.p., 2011. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
French, Thomas. Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives. New York: Hyperion, 2010. Print.
Hancocks, David. A Different Nature: The Paradoxical World of Zoos and Their Uncertain Fu- ture. Berkeley: University of California, 2001. Print.

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