A zoos job is to maintain the health of an animals while bringing and conserving its species to help it from either endangerment or extinction. In doing so they need to take in all accounts of how the animals could be effected living in captivity. Zoos don’t realize that by displaying animals to the public they could be affecting their physical health. Many zoos will display the animals as clearly and close to the public as they possibly can. Allowing zoo animals to be; subject to attacks from the visitors, poisoned by materials in their enclosures, or injured in escape attempts that normally would not occur in the wild. Heini Hediger, an author of numerous books on zoos and director of the Zurich Zoo during the mid-twentieth century, allocated …show more content…
If zoos increase the chance of death for animals, then why are they still being allowed to open their doors? Activists for the continuation of zoos still believe that zoos extend the life of the animals in a way that isn’t possible in the wild. They say the years lived are increased through veterinary care, the maintenance of enclosure environments, protection from predators and parasites, and the provision of adequate quantities and qualities of food. What that doesn’t address is the fact that visitors may unintentionally or intentionally lead to the death of an animal by feeding (despite warnings) or by introducing foreign bodies into the enclosure. There are many cases in where visitors intentionally mess with the animals to receive reactions, that is through throwing objects or calling to them. In 1874, when the Philadelphia Zoo opened, a sloth was poked to death by the walking sticks and umbrellas of visitors within a week (“From Zoo Cage”). Zoos need to start taking into consideration that the animals being so close to humans will negatively affect their
Have you ever seen an animal sitting in a cage all alone with nothing to do. Well, zoos are trying to change that fact. They will allow the animals to live in an environment that is like their home. Many people don't realize this, but zoo are keeping and breeding these animals because they would not survive in the wild alone. In the three passages, ¨The Stripes Will Survive,¨ ¨The Zood Go Wild from No More Dodos,¨ ¨Our Beautiful Macaws and Why They Need Enrichment.¨ All of these articles present one claim, that is that the role of zoos is no longer to keep animal, but to protect them.
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.
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?
Well over 181 million people visit zoos and aquariums each year. However, there have been recent reports that reveals that not all zoos and aquariums are the same. For example, Sea World has been under fire for the past several years for unethical practices of capturing and keep their orca whales ever since documentaries like Blackfish (2013) had come out. Zoos have been called out for their unsuitable exhibits for their animals. Even our own Oregon Zoo has been exposed for using concrete grounds for the elephant exhibits which causes extreme pain for the elephants are they weigh so much, stand on the concrete for many hours, and even getting foot disease leading to an early death. The ethical question it raises is, it ethical to keep wild animals in zoos for human viewing pleasure the expense of the animals well being? People have been putting animals in zoos since the ancient Greek times to profit off of humans wanting to view exotic animals. While some zoos have ethical practices in regards to the treatment and acquiring
In fact, zoos take all necessary precautions to make sure that the animals and the attendees are all safe in the captivity of the zoo. As a matter of fact, trainers always have experience in the field that they will be working in so that no one, including themselves, gets hurt. The enclosures are very well protected and sealed to make sure that no animals escape and no humans get inside to be hurt by the animals or to hurt the animal. Of course, there are also security cameras to make sure that all humans are safe where they are and no one in the near future will be hurt. In addition,
Animal cruelty is the abuse or failure to care for an animal. Before the past couple of years, people did not have to worry about how the animals in zoos were treated. For centuries, families have gone to zoos to be educated on the different species of animals. As years have gone by, zoos have become a trending topic of animal cruelty. While zoos do not physically abuse the animals, they have been known to not properly care for them. “According to the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA), there are over 10,000 zoos worldwide” (Fravel 2). Of these 10,000 zoos, only some of them actually care about their animals. Caring for wild animals is extremely hard because zoos have to recreate the animals’ natural habitat. Zoos believe that they are protecting the animals’, yet; they tend to forget how it affects the animals. In reality, the animals are depressed and bored. These wild animals are being taken out of their natural habitats and are enclosed in small cages and habitats. Wild animals should live in their natural habitats, the wild, not in a zoo for the entertainment of zoo visitors. Therefore, banning zoos will end the horrible cycle of animal cruelty.
As a kid, I had always looked forward to days at the zoo. I was, however, far more interested in the jungle-themed surroundings than the educational parts. I was told that zoos protected animals and took good care of them. Now I'm not too sure that's the truth. Animals like tigers, lions, and elephants are born to live and grow up in the wild. They aren't meant to live inside of a cage in a zoo. Not only that, but the animals' health isn't as good as you'd expect. Although lots time and money has been spent on zoos, animals are still suffering. Zoos are fun and exciting for kids and tourists, however, the animals aren't enjoying it as much as us.
Zoos are public parks that claim to display animals for the purpose of education and procreation of endangered species; but in reality Zoos area actually doing more harm than good. Animals that live in zoos are more likely to suffer from illness or injury as opposed to those who live in the wild, and they also have shorter lifespans.
Also the fact that almost every zoo around world needs to be improved in certain way, supports the second perspective best. Although, both two perspectives are true in different ways people should not be biased in one idea. The only main goal is to improve the animals living environment, and to prevent any possibility that could lead to an extinction of any animal species, and protect their rights as a living individual like a human. Certain requirement must be placed upon every zoo all over the world. Immediate action should be taken from now, otherwise it may be too late to do anything.
Many locals and tourists will head to the Zoo in hopes of seeing animals one can only see in the wild. A trip to the zoo is supposed to be fun, entertaining, and what some say “a good learning experience. ”These exotic animals are not put in their natural environments. Pushed behind artificial enclosures, and often times lonely. Thousands of people worldwide will pass hundreds of animal exhibits and many of these people won’t stand at the animal’s exhibit long enough to notice that something is wrong with the animal's living conditions.
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.
The zoo is an unnatural environment that exposes animals to numerous dangers. Diseases often spread between species that would never live together naturally. For example, many Asian elephants have died in US zoos after catching herpes from African elephants. Furthermore, zoo animals are often exposed to chemicals, solvents and other toxic substances. Finally, it is common for visitors to tease and provoke caged animals.
Douglas Falk, the Assistant Curator of Education of the New York Zoological Society explains that throughout history, people have kept animals to show off their wealth, entertain people, or give as gifts (Falk). The first zoos to show up were around 3,000 years ago in China where a Chinese emperor collected animals to study. In Europe we see zoos emerging as early as 900 AD. The first zoos in the United States begin to appear in the mid 1800’s and the National Zoological Park was set up by Congress in 1889 (Falk). From here Falk, along with other organizations involved within the zoo community like the Saint Louis Zoo say that the goals of zoos today are of conservation, education, and research (Falk).
Zoos have been around for a long time, since 1793 to be exact. They are a good place for families to go to, to enjoy animals that usually don't live near them. In some cases kids can learn and become connected to an animal. But all of this is at a cost, zoos are bad for animals and can often give the animals depression. Zoos are not good for animals and don't meet of of their needs, they need to be shut down or changed.
There are some incidents where lions in a zoo were kept in cramped for 18 hours a day, elephants were being trained with 4,500 electrode volt groads, animals were being disposed in the trash cans. Lions spent 48 percent of the time pacing around. Zoos teach people that it is acceptable to interfere with animals and keep them locked up in captivity, where they are bored, cramped, lonely, deprived of all control over their lives, and far from their natural homes. At the Virginia Zoo, 10 prairie dogs died when their tunnel collapsed, a rhinoceros drowned in the moat of her exhibit, and a zebra narrowly escaped death after jumping into the lion exhibit, while another lost her life when she bolted from a holding pen, struck a fence, and broke her neck.