We Bought A Zoo

A stereotypical teenager consists of always being moody, defiant, and never listening to a word their parents have to say. Dylan Mee was a stereotypical teenager. In the movie, We Bought a Zoo, Dylan Mee is a fourteen-year-old boy who has recently gone through a tremendous tragedy; the loss of his mother. With this loss, comes anger and sadness and with his hormones, comes defiance and irrational decisions. After becoming expelled from school, his father, Benjamin Mee believed that the best thing to do was to move out of the city; so, they did, to a property that contained a zoo. These changes have an enormous impact on Dylan’s psychosocial and cognitive development while in his adolescent stage.

Some people go to zoos to see the wild animals, but that’s not all that they are for. People in groups such as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) may think that zoos cannot provide the needs to wild animals as the wild can. Zoos help animals. They have improved, helping to repopulate species and save animals in the wild.

What was at one time used to show off wealth and power is now seen as a symbol of sadness and disgust, despite the many minds it blesses with wonder (Adwait- Kulkarni). Today there are huge controversies over Zoos and whether they are inhumane or not. There are also controversies about the United States of America and other countries. Many comparisons can be drawn between a Zoo and American culture. We go out to look at animals that are trapped in a place they have no control of, but could we really be looking at ourselves?

Founded in 1875 in Buffalo, New York, the Buffalo Zoo quickly became a popular tourist attraction. However, as time went on, the outdated buildings and unenthusiastic employees led to a decline in zoo visitors. The zoo began to face several challenges, and the most significant was the fear of losing its accreditation. The president at the time devised a plan to move the Buffalo Zoo to Delaware Park, but that was quickly blocked by employees of the zoo and members of the community. With no support and no where to turn, the president decided to resign. This left the zoo with no plan, and no one to guide them. After extensive searching, the zoo made the decision to hire 43-year-old Donna Fernandes. Donna had an extensive background in education and experience in management and caring for animals. Although Donna seemed like the perfect candidate for the position, she was warned that the employees and community would be reluctant to accept her due to previous negative experiences with poor management and failed attempts to save the zoo. This did not deter Donna, and she worked hard to change those negative experiences into positive ones.

In the past, there have been many reports of zoo accidents, to be specific; over 200 zoo accidents in the last 26 years have occurred. From my perspective zoos should be prohibited, taking innocent animals from the wild and holding them captive for display at zoos is cruel. There has been a bulk amount of controversy over the topic of zoo mishaps and whose fault is to blame for the occurrence. In all fairness, nobody should be blamed, but there should be a change or new regulations to guide zoos in a more prominent direction. Because in the end, if there is no difference in the zoo, then tragic events like this will continue to happen. There are various amounts of precautions that can be taken by zoo corporations to prevent zoo accidents;

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

The first modern zoo founded was in Vienna, Madrid and Paris in the eighteenth century and later in London and Berlin in the nineteenth century. The first zoo to be established in America was in Philadelphia and Cincinnati in the 1870s. In today’s America there are thousands of zoos. Humans like to be entertained regardless of how they are being entertained, whether that is walking through the park, watching a show, listening to music or simply going to the zoo. There is truth behind zoos that many don’t see, for example, many zoos don’t show the death rates that many zoo animals have after being transported from their natural habitants or the experiences that the zoo keepers provide to the animals being kept in captivity. To what extent are we okay with animals being tortured or being aware that animals are being killed just so humans can be entertained? While there are benefits to keeping animals in captivity, scholars agree that there are more negative effects that are damaging to the animals. The purpose of zoos can be more than just keeping animals in captivity and creating significant health or mental problems, zoos also can have a positive outcome, zoos can help keep endangered animals safe from others who are trying to kill them for what they are worth. Jamieson explains and gives one example of when people started putting animals in captivity. The Romans is the example that Jamieson uses, the Romans “kept animals in order to have living fodder for

There are so many reasons why people live in one place. But what would happen if your town, your city, your community got destroyed. What if you had no place to live, no family to go to, everything was just gone? All this happened an one big city named New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Dams were broke, rivers were flooded, roads were destroyed, but nothing came down to this. All the houses, the people, the town just gone and would never be the same.

In the heart warming movie We Bought a Zoo, directed by Cameron Crowe, Benjamin Mee deals with life’s issues by trying to fix them. An example of this is when, at the beginning of the movie, Benjamin and his son are in the principal’s office because Dylan got expelled. Ben gets annoyed by the squeaky window frame and tries to fix it. “Frame’s a little loose. I…Just give me one second” (Crowe, x:xx) says Ben when the principal walks into the room. Furthermore, Benjamin tries to fix his and his family’s life by ‘starting over’ and buying a new house. They end up buying a house that is on the property of a zoo that has been shut down and Ben thinks he can fix it up. “Well, yeah. Look, these animals need somebody to rescue them” (Crowe, x:xx) says

In the article The Future of Zoos, Justin Worland discusses the future of zoos so animals will be more comfortable in their environment. The Zoo360 is trying to change animals captivity by adding walkways/bridges for tigers. Animals are smarter and fell more than we knew and may suffer and may suffer when removed from their habitat in the wild. Coe developed a strategy to give animals natural vegetation, room to walk/roam, and big amounts of light. Hancocks has improved zoos a lot so that the animals are more comfortable in their environment.

In the heart warming motion picture We Bought a Zoo, directed by Cameron Crowe,Dylan Mee deals with life’s responsibility by trying to avoid them. In the begining Dylan says “Dad, it’s whatever. Look I’ll know it when I get to school.(Crowe x:xx)”This is significant because it shows how Dylan has a I don't really care attitude and just tries to block out life. Later Dylan says “You’re funny with everyone else, but never with me.

In the heartwarming, emotional movie “We Bought a Zoo” directed by Cameron Crowe, Benjamin Mee wants to fix everything that happens no matter the importance. In the beginning of the movie, Benjamin tries to fix a squeaky window in the principal's office of Dylan's school, when Dylan was going to get suspended. “I can fix it” (Crowe, x:xx) Benjamin said, after Dylan repeatedly told him to stop. Benjamin looks to fix things, even the smallest things when they don’t need to get fixed. Another example, of Benjamin trying to fix everything, is he decides moving to a new house is a good idea for the family. Benjamin thinks the move will help the kids get over their mom's death. Benjamin also says to his real estate agent “We just want new. We want

In the heartwarming movie We Bought A Zoo, directed by Cameron Crowe, Benjamin struggles to right the wrongs for him and everyone surrounding him. Even during his trip to the principal's office to discuss Dylan's behavior, he strays away from the matter at hand for an attempt to to fix the squeaky window in the office even though dylan is telling him to “stop.”(Crowe,x;xx) Benjamin simply replies “I can fix it.” (Crowe, x;xx). Benjamin can't resist making an attempt to fix things, even if they are not his problem. Later in in the movie, ben decides he wants to fix his living situation. Ben says he wants “new..new...new everything”. (Crowe, x: xx). Benjamin moves to a new house thinking it will be better for him and the kids because they will

The last model to evaluate Dylan is the cognitive model. The cognitive model tries to make sense of what the mind is thinking. It tries to understand how individuals look at themselves and their environment. It tries to make sense of how people see their own behaviour and the behaviour of others. Abnormality occurs when a person thinks negatively and causes a negative mood (psychology4a 2006). For Dylan, there are a number of things that would cause him to think negatively about himself thus causing abnormality and depression. From a young age Jean, his adoptive mother constantly compared him to his more successful and intelligent cousins, causing Dylan to feel inadequate and negative about himself. Even when older and

The main aim of zoos is to protect and conserve global biodiversity and wildlife. To do this they have four roles to play which are; research, conservation, education and welfare.