Natural Selection In Zoos

One of the most fun, visually amazing functions to visit are zoo's. Growing up as a kid going to the zoo was so much fun and basically guaranteed a great day out. People have been complaining and questioning the role of zoo's for a long time now. Some claim that it actually kills the animals off faster. Others claim that zoo's actually help protect and preserve the lives of these animals. Only one can make a reasonable argument by studying sources, and finding out statistics. Based off of the articles, "The Stripes Will Survive", "The Zoos Go Wild", and "Our Beautiful Macaws and Why They Need Enrichment", we can truly get in-depth analysis about the role zoo's play.

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 across the world claim to be safe, suitable homes that replicate habitats of animals that are usually found in the wild. However, there is no possible way for wild habitats to be replicated well enough for animals in captivity to thrive, animals are often separated and withheld from living as they would in the wild. Despite their argument of being educational for visitors, the only thing they are teaching the public is that it is ok to take animals out of the wild and lock them up for their own enjoyment. Regardless of these claims, zoos are inhumane.

Zoos play an important role in conservation. It is important to realize zoos have breeding programs that help restore threatened species. As a result of those breeding programs, the Los

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.

As claimed in the LCA article, ”Animals in zoos are forced to live in artificial, stressful, and downright boring conditions”(User, Super). Evidence shows time to time that animals are being affected by zoos. There are many things hidden behind the facilities, that many people do not know about. The animals are being held in conditions that no animal should ever live in. Even though some zoos do focus on helping the animals, they are not as beneficial to the animal because they are not provided with the proper care and attention they need and zoos do not try to fix their problems.

Zoos may seem fun to visit and exciting to see the animals; but what you don’t see is the suffering and depression that lies in these helpless creatures. There are many arguments whether or not zoos are good or bad, and if they should be removed or kept. Several think that zoos should be abolished or at least very much improved, due to animal cruelty. While, others want zoos to stay because it is beneficial for the animals and people. I strongly believe that zoos aren’t good for both the public and animals for numerous reasons.

Zoos across the world claim to be safe, suitable homes that replicate habitats of animals that are usually found in the wild. However, there is no possible way for wild habitats to be replicated well enough for animals in captivity to thrive, animals are often separated and withheld from living as they would in the wild. Despite their argument of being educational for visitors, the only thing they are teaching the public is that it is ok to take animals out of the wild and lock them up for their own enjoyment. Regardless of these claims, zoos are inhumane.

Some people may argue that zoos are good for sick or injured animals; however, while they can help nurture babies and bring sick creatures back to health, they are not safe for healthy animals. Dr. Lesley Dickey estimates that every year about 3,000 to 5,000 animals are ‘management euthanized’ in European zoos (Barnes). This means that zoos put down animals if there is not enough space for them. This is called zoo culling. Some zoos even dissect animals in front of guests that they killed. Zoos are for caring for animals, there is no place for cruelty. Although most zoos don’t kill surplus animals, that doesn’t make them innocent. Some animals don’t live as long in zoos as they do in the wild. The median life span in European zoos for African

It’s human nature to have compassion towards animals and an instinct to react if they are abused or mistreated. This human nature is the foundation to the controversial topic of whether zoos are ethical to have. With this issue, there are various reasons that promote the importance of zoos along with reasons to why they can be considered immoral. Both sides are essentially equal and fighting for the same result, the well-being of the animal both physically and mentally. It’s difficult to determine which side is right, but I believe that zoos are beneficial to not only humans but the animals as well.

There are animal preservation groups that don’t require putting these wide ranges of species in captivity. Their sole purpose is to help injured animals or species that are going extinct, and release them back into the wild where they belong. I think that zoos should be abolished unless they change into sanctuaries where injured animals are taken in, helped, and released back into the wild immediately. Zoos would still be allowed to do this in front of public eyes. Animals should never be held captive and “research” is never an excuse. Animals can be researched while in the wild where they are in their most natural and happy state. Zoos do not do this. Zoos claim that they are helping animal species when in reality they’re hurting them and torturing animals to the point of depression and insanity. There is no justification for shooting animals when they act up because they shouldn’t be in those situations in the first place. Animal instincts should not change. Wild animals aren’t meant to be ‘tamed’ in order to provide entertainment to the public. Most zoo visitors say they don’t take away any real connection afterwards so zoos really don’t have any righteous or moral

Thesis: All zoos should be overhauled and replaced with free-range territories or back into the wild to help these animals avoid the detrimental effects that zoo’s cause on their health and to stop teaching people that is okay to imprison these animals.

In the past few years, a lot of controversy has been going on about whether zoos should be banned or not. Zoos should not be banned as they play a major role in preventing the extinction of some of the species help and in the protection of the animals. “In 1962 a campaign to catch three of the last living Arabic Oryx served to begin a breeding project at the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona.”[1]

Animals play an important role of human life. Wild animal is a kind that normally lives in the wild, for example: elephants, tigers, rhinos and many others. They live in the wild with spacious and natural environment, however many humans kept them in the zoo, as an attraction for the sake of the money. They didn’t think of the wild animals habitat, and there are some problems arise from keeping them in cages. The shock of being in captivity would depress the animals; they would even act hysterically and might hurt people near them. And it is not the animal to be fault. There are three main reasons why wild animals should not be kept in the zoos:

“Zoos try to make the animal’s enclosure as interesting as possible. One way of doing this is through ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT. Enrichment is the use of novel objects or ideas to increase the natural behaviour of the animals. Different objects and methods are used for different animals.” (1)