Animal Captivity

Whether it's for experimentation, research, or amusement, throughout the years there have been many reasons to keep animals captive. Zoos take animals captive in order to conserve endangered species but research has revealed that many of the animals confined in zoos are not threatened species. Most of the species in zoos are, as a matter of fact, marketable and familiar animals rather than endangered species (Keulartz, 340). Jeopardized species or not, animal captivity has had many negative effects on the captive animals such as their physiological behavior. On the other hand, zoos retain animals in cramped living conditions and are mostly maintained for human amusement. They are also not able to socialize with other animals. Contrarily, the

There are different federal animal laws that do shelter animals but the author perceives that they exempt zoo animals. The Animal Welfare Act is an example and it sets the foundations for welfare and care towards zoo animals but has been criticized for the lack or proper enforcement of the act in zoos and persuming that animals are subjected to humans and are the property of humans. The act exempts a few animals since it does not apply to cold-blooded animals such as reptiles but also excludes birds, rats, and mice for research purposes. The act is enforced by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) (Braverman, 1696). Another example is the ESA or Endangered Species Act and it restricts any sort of activity, activities such as transporting these species and hunting, involving the endangered species to assure their survival. The ESA is enforced by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The ESA was amended quite a few times and the current regulation is that selective breeding or animal husbandry is accepted as long as there is no

Mazur and Tim W. Clark, zoos can be beneficial but there must be political reform around the policy making. The information or data/research gathered is mostly from international documents and literature concerning zoo policies and a four year study on nine Australian zoos. Information was also collected by approaching different people with their personal and professional experience with zoos. There have also been a few observations on North American zoos. Throughout their research, they are aware that zoos have evolved throughout time and will continue to develop and progress. The zoo's aims are to overall conserve endangered species and to educate the public make them aware when they explore the zoo. similarity? In zoos, the ex-situ conservation method is used. The ex-situ method is conservation actions are taking place out of species natural habitat or off-site conservation and it can help for single species but selective breeding for conserving prevails to be disputed. It is an emergency procedure and is restrained by extreme costs (Mazur and Clark, 187). However in-situ conservation is more supported and may be seen as a solution. In-situ conservation is when species are left in their original natural habitat in the wild for conservation actions. Therefore, it is evident that there should be policy reform and that the member of the zoo community recognize this as well. But even if they do recognize this, there are complications that