Moral Argument's Rights-Based Theory

Zoos, rehabilitation institutions, and many other environmental centers provide opportunities for the public to witness animals that cannot be seen on a daily basis. Whether to keep animals in captivity is morally hard to decide, especially for me personally. In the essay, “Against Zoos,” by Dale Jamieson, he writes about the positives zoos provide, and then reiterates them; making positives turn into negatives. Jamieson makes statements about humans being superior over animals, and how we should not be thinking that we are better. We tend to take a lead role over other species, because of our “higher intelligence.” That should not mean that we treat wildlife as if they are something lower than us. In more ways than one, we as humans are

“Some people talk to animals. Not many listen thought. That’s the problem.” - A.A. Milne. I feel that this means some people command the animals to work, while not understanding what the animal also wants or needs. In the debate, “Are Zoos Bad News?”, written anonymously, the author reports the ethical and unethical reasoning between zoos. This came after the attack on three victims. In my opinion, the existence of zoos should endure seeing that it educates people, zoos can alter the behaviour of people to animals and zoos promote wildlife conservation.

As the animal rights movement has developed and grown substantially in recent years, there has been an increased focused on the welfare of captive animals. A popular institution that has received much attention for keeping animals captive is the zoo. Because of this focus, zoos have responded by publicizing their positive benefits for existence in order to justify keeping these animals on display. Since the term “zoo” can have a wide variety of meaning and characteristics, it is important to define what constitutes a zoo in this essay. Zoos are defined as a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and

Zoos have been around for 4,000 years, for many years people have gone to zoos to see wild animals up close. What people do not know is animals don't have the best interest in being in a zoo. The article, "Zoos: The Historical Debate" from Globalanimal.org discusses some pros (positive sides) and cons (negative sides) of zoos. As well as how millions of people visit zoos around the world and how some argue that zoos are either places of education and conversation or unnecessary prisons. After reading the article a logical conclusion is zoos are detrimental to animals.

Living in these zoos, the zookeepers are feeding and taking care of these animals, which is the eradication of their self-reliance. So, animals that are living or are born in captivity lose their instincts to survive progressively each day. In an article from National Geographic News, researcher Kristen Jule says, “Their lack of hunting skills and lack of fear towards humans are major disadvantages” (Owen). Unfortunately, since these animals lose or don’t develop natural hunting and survival skills, they will most likely die in the wild. So, letting the animals free might pose an enormous problem, how are they going to survive without these necessary

Have you ever been to a zoo or a wildlife refuge? You have seen the way the animals act for our entertainment. I feel that animals should be left in the wild where they were naturally meant to live. In zoos, they have limited space; some zoos even show cruelty to their animals. Animals are being taken out of their natural habitat only for the owners to make money off of them. I feel strongly that having animals in captivity for human enjoyment is not what God intended to happen.

Countless land and aquatic animals are held captive in zoos. However, are zoos really conserving wildlife like they say, by putting animals on display? Negative. Zoos are unsuitable environments for wild animals, and therefore should be eradicated. Zoos should cease to exist for three main reasons: animals deserve just as much freedom and happiness as humans, enclosing them in confined habitats harms them, and imprisoning them infuriates them.

The topic of zoos and whether or not they’re humane have quickly become one of the biggest controversial topics in the past twenty years. There is not much of a ‘middle’ perspective in this debate, rather people tend to lie on two completely opposite ends of the spectrum when displaying their beliefs pertaining to the zoo debate. I chose to research this topic because though I have strong beliefs, I think that, on this matter specifically, people often jump to a certain side without any prior research or actual education on the subject. I think that it’s important to understand both sides of the argument of zoos before sustaining a side. Another reason why I chose this topic was to moreso educate myself and to make sure that the knowledge I

Throughout history morality has been a topic of intense debate. Innumerable thinkers have devoted immense amounts of time and energy to the formulation of various ethical theories intended to assist humans in their daily lives. These theories set out guidelines which help to determine the rightness or wrongness of any given action and can therefore illuminate which choice would be morally beneficial. And while many of these theories differ substantially, most have at least one common underlying principle, namely that humans deserve to be treated with a certain level of respect. This idea comes from the belief that all humans have interests which are significant enough to be considered, hence no one should impede another

Some associations are claiming that zoos should be banned because it’s having negative impact on the animals. They reject the idea that zoos are made to preserve some species from extinction. Their argument is that if zoos were really made for that solely purpose then the species in the zoos will not be kept for public viewing. These associations propose

Some people agree that animals should be kept in the zoo. They said it would be safer for the animals and they won’t be extinct. The amount of possibilities of them dying, shot by hunters or any other reason, still higher than the chances of their survival. Food and shelter are provided, medicine, and their breeding is being controlled. And many of the wild animals in zoos are ones that are on the endangered list as their amounts are rapidly diminishing. Letting them loose and returning them to the wild is not necessarily a safe option. (Mylot, 2007) In fact, zoo can be one of the educational studies for children and people who are interested with animals. Zoo is the only place that we can have an opportunity to see animal’s life really close and sometimes we can touch them. Zoos also provide lots of information about certain animals, children can have chance to get out of the classroom and learn so they can see natural beauty from different species of animals. Even children can see them from discovery channel but that’s really different if you see animal in real world, for an example, if you see crocodile, snake or shark in the movie, maybe you won’t afraid than you see the real one. According to Tudge, (1992, p.56) Zoos are the place where people can study animals and their habitat, even scientist don’t need to go

Have you ever speculated how many pounds of food cheetahs eat every day in a zoo, they eat about 90 LBS of food a day! That’s about the exact amount they eat in the wild each day. So cheetahs eat the perfect amount of food and they don’t have to go through the trouble of hunting. Some people ask if it’s okay for animals to be in a zoo because they don’t have all that space to roam around in. But because zoos meet the needs of the animals, offer protection, and have reproduction programs I disagree. In my opinion, animals can definitely live a heathy physical and emotional life in a

Are zoos really as sufficient as the animal's natural enviroment? Many people seem to think so, and will even argue that zoos are more suitable. The animals are no longer kept in poor conditions and undersized cages for people to ogle and poke at. Now they kept in large and safe enclosures, and each animal is provided with the space, care and proper food and nourishment that it needs. The days of capturing them from the wild are long gone, now days the animals in the zoos were born there. They do not know anything else, which according to animal activists is a good thing, no longer do the animals have to needlessly die because of hunters or food being scarce.

Example white tiger, who live only at zoos, not in wild nature. These individuals can not live in the wild, because people hunt them for money, their skin, medicine believe. Also poachers kill one tiger every day. And not only tigers, they hunt other animals too who have some body parts, what they can sell for money. And other good example is the European bison. This should be the cause why zoos are necessary. Probably does not exist many species on Earth if we did not have zoos. Maybe zoos are not necessary when all people are vegetarians, more environmentally friends, have more environmental groups and people hunt only when any species are too many. But it is not reality. When we want that all animals live in freedom, then we must to change the world a better place for

Imagine walking through the zoo as a child, thinking how awesome it is to see all of those big interesting animals you would never get to encounter in the wild. Now think of walking through the zoo when you are older seeing these same animals in a very different light. Instead of seeing animals happily living their lives you see animals wandering aimlessly around their small enclosures looking bored to tears and depressed. Is it fair that we keep these animals cooped up specifically for our own entertainment? What right do we have to capture, contain, and breed these precious animals as we please? Why should we get to control their lives when they could obviously be living a better life elsewhere? Often these questions are meet with responses of conservation and education, but in reality those defenses have little backing. No animal should be forced to live in captivity for its whole life, which is why zoos should be banned since they are truly unjust to the animals living in them.