The crowd starts to swarm around the latest attraction; you can hear gasps of awe from the children and people saying “look at that!” This attraction happens to be a bear laying out in the hot sun. Children are standing on the ledge of the fence trying to catch a glimpse of the bear. Phones out and ready to snap pictures of it.
This is a common sight at zoos around the world. The zoo is a popular place for families and people of all ages to visit, especially in the Chicagoland area where our two zoos, Brookfield and Lincoln Park are a favorite for families to visit all year-long. However, there is a controversy over zoos: whether they’re humane or not. For example, in 2016, Harambe, a gorilla was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo after a three-year-old
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Dave Hone, a paleontologist, who states, “zoos raise money for conservation efforts by enabling people to experience wildlife first hand.” I admit that zoos protect endangered animals from threats, however, most zoos don’t spend a large amount of money on conservation. According to Hancocks, less than 3 percent of the budget at zoos go towards conservation-instead, they spend money on creating exhibits to attract visitors.
Even though zoos are trying to replicate the animals’ natural habitats, it’s common for animals to live in unfit conditions. The Washington Post reported how Reston Zoo violated The Animal Welfare act, a federal law that regulates the treatment of animals. One incident was an African crested porcupine, who was placed in 8 degree weather, even though the animal is used to warm climates. This made the porcupine faint and the keepers gave him medicine past the expiration date. He died a few hours after this incident.
This reminds me of the time I visited Brookfield Zoo on a sunny, 90 degree day. I saw a polar bear surrounded by a field of grass underneath the blazing, hot sun. He looked dehydrated as he rested against a gray door trying to escape the blistering heat. The lady next to me said “The poor polar bear wants to go inside,” while she stood there with her camera
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There, four large cows were lined up and chained to a metal bar while eating their dinner. Goats were cramped in a small metal cage with feces and hay scattered all around them. A goat, whose white fur was starting to turn gray from the dirt, stuck its head between the two metal bars, trying to get to the other side away from the crowded area. This image was engraved into my brain as I left the zoo. In that moment I realized that the zoo is not a just a fun place you visit for a day, instead it’s a place that these animals have to live in for the rest of their lives.
My overall experience at Lincoln Park was the opposite of fun. It wasn’t fun seeing animals trapped and not doing anything. It wasn’t fun seeing animals live in a desolate enclosure. Most people visit zoos with their families and friends and spend the entire day with smiles on their faces, buying souvenirs, admiring the animals, or attending a dolphin show. But, they fail to look beyond the surface and think about the animals that are put on
Although it’s entertaining to watch these animals perform, most people don’t take the time to think about the issues that the companies that are involved in this type of entertainment encounter. The frequently asked questions of how
Animal rights have become a very serious issue here in the United States over the last few decades. One issue that has been discussed is whether or not zoos serve a good purpose or are they just a torture chamber for the animals. Locked up in small cages so people can yell at them and stare. Or are zoos the key to save our species in an ever growing human population. Rachel Lu, a philosophy teacher and senior columnist, writes the article, “Let’s Keep Zoos: Learning stewardship is a good thing.”, published April 18, 2014, argues that zoos are worth keeping. Rachel Lu uses her personal experiences to appeal to her audience that zoos are valuable to people especially young children because it gives them a perspective on nature.
Analysis of Argument for Ethical Zoos and How They Benefit Animals Due to the recent events in the Cincinnati Zoo, arguments have been sparked about the ethics of zoos. Most articles try to argue against zoos and closed environments, but there are those that still support zoos and the programs that they provide for endangered species. The argument “Zoos Are Not Prisons”? They Improve the Lives of Animals” focuses on the positives of animal enclosures and fights for support to keep zoos in business. The author, Dr. Robin Ganzert, ties examples of programs that zoos help create and what type of research is conducted in the zoos, to support his claims.
Zoo captivity is substandard and inadequate for animals. Zoo animals are deprived of their right as animals they are treated unjustly and unfairly. Animals should not be forced to kept in a cage away from their natural environment and be used as a form of entertainment to humans. The animals also suffer from stress and are driven insane by being trapped behind bars. The zoo is supposed to provide safety to these endangered animals but instead, these zoo animals are put at risk towards a variety of dangers such as vulnerability to diseases and starvation.
The difference between right and wrong is not always perfectly clear. A long-standing part of cultures across the world, zoological and animal parks have been around for hundreds of years. While in the past concerns and issues regarding the ethical problems zoos seem to impose were less prominent, in recent times the rise of animal rights activist groups and new generational values have influenced the way people view these parks. Critics believe that zoos are an unnatural habitat for animals and force them to live in captivity, having a negative impact on their health. Yet, there are still many who fully support zoos, citing business and educational reasons.
Thousands of zoos worldwide are visited by citizens yearly to admire and satisfy their curiosity of the beautiful wild animals that mother nature has to offer. Zoos have been around for hundreds of years and have become a known tradition for numerous school field trips and family outings. The ongoing debate between animal rights activists and zoo officials remains, should wild animals be taken from their natural habitats to live in city zoos for education and entertainment purposes?
The Guardian’s article by Dave Hone titled “Why Zoos Are Good” states that zoos help keep endangered species from going extinct by having breeding programs for those animals. This would ensure that endangered animals would be kept alive at least in captivity. The Association of Zoos & Aquariums argues that zoos promote education about the animals which in turn promotes conservation efforts for the animals in the wild. Lucy Siegle's article “How Ethical is it to Visit the Zoo” brings up the point that zoos are ethical because many zoos fund research or participate in programs that helps protect animals. many zoos donate a portion NPR’s article by Melissa Block defends zoos by stating that zoos foster the public’s, especially young children interest in exotic animals which will create a new generation that will be more lenient towards conservation efforts in the
Among many other fun and exciting attraction to visit around our community, a visit to the zoo has always been a memorable experience. This cost effective priceless lifetime experience is being undermined by a group of activists all around the country. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), world largest animal rights organization, argue that zoos deprived animals from satisfying their most basic needs. They urge not to patronized zoos and claims that the money spent on ticket purchases pays for animals to be imprisoned and traded, not rescued and rehabilitated. They go on saying in summary that zoos strip animals from their rights. So this heated debate revolves around the animal rights and how the zoo industry inhibits it. Are zoo really bad for the animals? Should we get rid of the zoo and let the animals back to the wilderness? Mazur and Clark (2001) state that zoo is a monument to a long-standing tradition of people’s fascination with non-human nature. Since the early societies of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Chinese, wild animals have been maintained in captivity in order to satisfy human curiosity with exotica (p 185). Most western zoos today, however, embrace far more benevolent values such as supporting the conservation of biodiversity through specialized animal breeding, research, and education programs.
In today’s world, zoos are a meaningful part in a large number of people’s lives. Zoos are not only a home for animals, they are also a place for people to really enjoy themselves. Everybody has been to the zoo; they have fed the fish, enjoyed a show with seals, or just admired all of the wildlife. My Grandma and I used to go to Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska every year to do just these things. Henry Doorly Zoo is a place worthy of closer analysis because in 2016, TripAdvisor ranked it the number one zoo in the world. Henry Doorly Zoo has a countless number of stunning animals, though zoos inevitably upset the natural ecology for animals. Throughout the world, zoos are often a site of controversies. Henry
Imagine being trapped, abused, cramped, and caged all for the sake of either having your stripped flesh spoiled in a store, or thrown into the trash. Animals endure such conditions in factory farms across the world, suffering because so many people turn a blind eye to the things going on within the establishments that supply the world’s meat. It is not common knowledge for people to know about the abuse and inhumane actions that occur in these facilities, which are often called slaughterhouses and factory farms, but it should be. The conditions of animals and the incidents involving the well-being of the workers in these horrid affairs need to be known to the public and be shut down, even if most people would rather be kept in the dark about these types of controversies.
Let’s take a look at Pitiful Prisons (Zoos) for instance. Despite their professional concern for animals, zoos could more accurately be described as a "collection" of animals rather than actual safe havens or homes. Zoos claim to be educational, but visitors spend maybe a few minutes at each display searching for entertainment more than enlightenment; it doesn't matter what’s on display, the people look at it as if it is wallpaper. Even taking consideration of the best conditions at the best of zoos, the fake ecosystems couldn't even begin to replace wild animals’ habitat.... ...
Even though some zoos have an endangered species exhibit with the intention of protecting and rehabilitating animals, many do not do an adequate job of protecting the animals. Zoos have been harmful to the very animals they have sworn to protect. Animals in captivity often suffer from anxiety, boredom and other severe issue related to prolonged confinement. Most animals are unable to thrive in small enclosure with unnatural weather and climates. For example elephants are known to walk as far as 30 miles per day, but the association of Zoos and aquariums only require a space the measures $0 feet by 45 feet, which is about the size of a three car garage, to house these large animals. (peta.org) the drastic difference in the amount of space their allowed ...
Most people think that zoos protect animals, but it can clearly be seen in the records provided by the Times that the zoos are doing the exact opposite of protecting animals. The American zoos, including the accredited ones, have led to the near demise of elephants. As if that alone isn’t enough to prove that zoos are cruel and unfair, there are many professionals and experts who gravely look down upon zoos too. Delcianna Winders, director with the PETA foundation, said “Renowned oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau reported that...
Zoos are an unsuitable environment for wild animals and should, therefore, be abolished. Firstly, zoo animals are kept in a very confined area compared to their vast natural habitat. Secondly, breeding programmes are far less successful than zoos claim. Thirdly, zoo animals are exposed to many diseases and other dangers. Zoo animals are usually kept in very cramped enclosures and do not behave like their wild counterparts.
There has been a long-standing debate surrounding the nature of zoological parks. In recent years, the concern over the health and safety of animals in captivity has grown significantly. This is due, in part, to the rise in attention people have started paying towards the way these animals are treated and held captive within zoological parks. On the news, more cases pop up yearly involving animals that have been abused, neglected, and even killed. Furthermore, animal rights groups have become larger in numbers and more outspoken regarding the problematic existence of zoos. Though despite these facts, there has not been a decline in the amount of people visiting zoos, the economic revenue is as strong as ever, and the establishments are still