1. Where did we lose our compassion for living creatures? How could we possibly think that displaying animals in cages in unnatural environments - mostly for entertainment purposes - is fair and decent?
2. Zoo officials say they are concerned about animals. However, most zoos remain “collections” of interesting “items” rather than protective habitats. Zoos teach people that it is acceptable to keep animals in captivity - bored, cramped,lonely, and far from their natural homes.
3. Zoos claim to educate people and save endangered species, but visitors leave zoos without having learned anything meaningful about the animals’ natural behavior, intelligence, or beauty. Most zoo enclosures are quite small, and most labels only mention the species’ name, diet, and natural range. The animals’ normal behavior is seldom observed,because zoos rarely take care of the animals’ natural needs.
4. The animals are kept together in small spaces, with no privacy and little opportunity for mental stimulation or physical exercise. This results in abnormal and self-destructive behavior called zoochosis. A worldwide study of zoos conducted by the Born Free foundation revealed that zoochosis is common among animals kept in small spaces or cages. Another study found that elephants spend 22 percent of their time engaging in aboanormal behaviors, such as repeated head movements or biting cage bears spend 30 percent of their time walking back and forth, a sign of distress.
5. Furthermore, most animals in zoos are not endangered. Captive breeding of endangered big cats, Asian elephants, and other species has not resulted in their release to the wild. Zoos talk a lot about their captive breeding programs because they do not want people to worry about a species becoming extinct. In fact, baby animals also attract a lot of paying customers. How many contests have we seen to name baby animals?
6. Ultimately, we will save endangered species only if we save their habitats and put an end to the reasons people kill them. Instead of supporting zoos, we should support groups that work to preserve animals’ natural habitats.