At least 20 zoos in the United States have already ended their elephant exhibits in part because of ethical concerns about keeping the species captive. Lack of learning valuable animal life skills such as hunting and social structures eventually leads to the alteration of the said animals behavior. Likewise, consuming sustainable seafood provides a valuable source of food for people and helps promote sustainable jobs. However, critics say this doesn't justify their existence. Also, removing a certain species from the ecosystem can destroy the whole ecosystem. A few zoos are famous for their conservation work. The California condor shows what zoos can accomplish. In states without tight enough regulation, local jurisdictions oftentimes adopt ordinances that ban or restrict the display of captive wild animals. Check out more news and information on Wild Animalsin Science Times. Should Animals Be Kept In Zoos However, there are various reasons that explain why zoos are unethical. This treaty is credited with helping foster international cooperation to protect some endangered and vulnerable species. When it rains, the topsoil gets washed away leaving the land more exposed. Visit animal sanctuaries instead of zoos, marine parks or circuses. Running a successful zoo is about drawing in visitors as much as it is caring for animals. Investigators found sticks and pine cones inside the exhibit, most likely thrown by the boys. Ive heard and read some of their stories. There is more to natural environments than just looks. Grizzly Bear vs Black Bear: Whats the Difference. Reintroduced animals have a hard time coping with life in the wild after long periods away. But is there a reason why animals should not be kept in zoos? It took several decades before Alex was able to leave the corporate world behind and embark on a real writing journey. This is particularly true if the animal is there for entertainment. See Related: Endangered Species in Oklahoma. That claim is up for debate. Why Are Puppy Mills Bad: The Numerous Reasons Why They Must Be Stopped And How You, yes you, Can Help! Profits are also gained through the selling of animals to other zoos or circuses. Your email address will not be published. Caring for animals on a full-time basis requires someone who is both informed and cares about them. Zoos provide opportunities for nice family trips. A species protected in captivity provides a reservoir population against a population crash or extinction in the wild. The animals too have rights and they shouldnt be subjected to half the things they undergo. These are wild animals, who are dangerous by nature and cannot be domesticated. In addition, when animals are removed from their natural habitats, they are also removed from their family structure and social hierarchy. However, this is often not much more than an illusion for the customer. WHY ANIMALS SHOULD NOT BE KEPT IN CAPTIVITY - Adobe Slate However, they are really just teaching children about caring for animals in captivity. However, only a certain number of each species are really needed, and so should breeding result in a sharp increase, these numbers are reduced via various methods. Some sad facts about zoos are that at times, the people hired to take care of and protect these animals arent very qualified. Apes are excellent at escaping. An orangutan at the Omaha Zoo kept wire for lock-picking hidden in his mouth. Others allow private parties to keep animals like tigers or primates with a permit. There are a few exceptions. How Does Saving Water Help Climate Change? Properly curated and interpreted, a well-run garden can be a site for a rewarding outing with friends or family, a source of education for the 27 percent of people who read signs and a point of civic pride. The Toledo Zoo has dosed zebras and wildebeest with the antipsychotic haloperidol to keep them calm and has put an orangutan on Prozac. Anyone can read what you share. Display would be incidental. Not surprising, perhaps, considering the typical polar bear enclosure is one million times smaller than the area they would naturally roam.". Others are captured from their native habitats, or come from backyard breeders or the black market. In the 1980s, a group of orangutans escaped several times at the San Diego Zoo. A 2019 report by World Animal Protection found that captive animals exhibitedabnormal levels of aggression, indicating that the attack in Miami Seaquarium was a direct result of captivity, despite claims that it is an isolated incident and is uncommon. Captive animals are forced to spend their lives swimming endlessly and aimlessly instead of traveling up to 100 miles a day at fast speeds in the wild. However, the truth is that no enclosure can come close to matching the vastness of an animals natural environment. See Related: What Is The Hunters Role in Wildlife Conservation? See Related: Importance of Wildlife Conservation. These laws help the animals and also people, since wild animals in captivity present a serious public safety risk. Its zookeepers who arent fond of animals that go around hurting animals even when they havent been provoked. When the zoo replaced the bars with thick glass, he started methodically removing the putty holding it in. With their apes, elephants, big cats, and other large and smart species gone, they could expand enclosures for the rest of the animals, concentrating on keeping them lavishly happy until their natural deaths. Some populations in the wild are weakened by endogamy too. Zoo owners go to great lengths to build enclosures that have a wild aesthetic and give paying visitors a taste of the wild world. They go for the same reason people went to zoos in the 19th century: to be entertained. This alone increases the risk of disease, as animals are exposed to viruses they have never encountered before. The real question is, how can we change things? Capturing animals even smart ones like apes, for amusement shouldnt be going on anywhere. Wildlife experts said that the incident was just another proof that wild animals should not be kept captive because it would not happen had the dolphin was only in the wild. Should Animals Be Kept in Zoos? | The Minimalist Vegan For the unlucky ones that end up in the circuses, they are always in for a wide awakening. All things considered, animals should not be kept in zoos or aquariums. After all, more than 700 million people visit zoos and aquariums worldwide every year, and biodiversity is still in decline. See Related: Most Comfortable Animals in The World. Zoological gardens have been working to help ensure that any endangered species are given another chance to thrive again over time. Jason Hribals 2010 book, Fear of the Animal Planet, chronicles dozens of attempts. An example of this is a snake that will bite whatever is threatening them since they are not as good at running away as other animals. In 1982, only 22 condors existed in the wild. Throughout history, men have accumulated large and fierce animals to advertise their might and prestige. Read on to find out why animals should not be kept in zoos. The statistics on the number of big cats alone that have died in captivity between 1990 and 2021 is 126. The California condor breeding program, which almost certainly saved the species from extinction, includes five zoos as active partners. Why Are Zoos Bad? Why Animals Should Not be Kept in Zoos NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Captures Dramatic Hour-by-Hour Changes of Dart Mission Slamming on an Asteroid, Can Humanity Deflect Potentially Hazardous Asteroids? I have written before about the importance of zoos and the role they have to play in the world for conservation . They could either bite, peck, scratch, kick, or flap their wings. The confined living areas are a big contributor to animal stress and lack of physical stimulation like would be gained from a nice sprint. Why? Terrifying, Pre-Historic-Looking Fish Captured in the Ocean's Twilight Zone; What Is It? The A.Z.A. But whether recent events have triggered a profound shift in public consciousness is harder to quantify. Whats Causing Their Decline? When an animal is not on the endangered list, capturing it doesnt serve any purpose to the animal. The fewer than two dozen non-participants include North Korea, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Turkmenistan. Ostensibly places for genteel amusement and edification, zoos expanded beyond big and fearsome animals to include reptile houses, aviaries and insectariums. Most states have no laws governing captive wild animals. Most people visit the zoo to see the big draw animals. We do know that common animals kept as pets include lions, tigers, cougars, ocelots, servals, wolves, bears, alligators, snakes and nonhuman primates like chimpanzees. How Similar is Human DNA to Other Animals, Animals That Have Become Extinct in the Last 100 Years, 9 Best Solar-Powered Computers to Buy Today, 10 Impactful Ways to Conserve Coral Reefs. Lawsuit to Force USDA to Recognize Its Authority to Take Possession of Animals Upon License Revocation, Demanding USDA Strengthen and Enforce AWA Licensees Recordkeeping Requirement for All Animal Deaths, Demanding USDA Revoke Animal Welfare Act License from Pennsylvania Roadside Zoo Claws N Paws, Big Cat Public Safety Act Passes the U.S. Senate in Victory for Animals, USDA to Strengthen Tracking of Animal Deaths at Licensed Facilities Following Legal Petition, Lawsuit Seeks to Force USDA to Recognize Its Authority to Take Possession of Animals When Agency Revokes Licenses. Animals are an important part of nature and should have the right to live in their natural environment. Living collections were often presented in taxonomic order, with various species of the same family grouped together, for comparative study. In the past five years, the number of zoos has been gradually going up. When it works out, breeding endangered animals has positive results that can be felt even in the human kingdom. Another problem of zoos is that animals often only have rather limited space to move. In many cases, animals in captivity do not have the space or resources to roam and live as they would in their natural habitat. The polar bears in Winnipeg have disco poo. There are a number of reasons why animals should not be kept in captivity. The other argument zoos commonly make is that they educate the public about animals and develop in people a conservation ethic. Their droppings look like little glitterballs. Zookeepers are not mustache-twirling villains. Existing animal protection laws do not actually consider the true ramifications of captivity. While zoos can definitely be exciting places for families to visit, the fact remains that they are bad for animals. Elephants are particularly unhappy in zoos, given their great size, social nature and cognitive complexity. Many suffer from arthritis and other joint problems from standing on hard surfaces; elephants kept alone become desperately lonely; and all zoo elephants suffer mentally from being cooped up in. If one could simply stop urging and encouraging zoos then maybe someday animals get to live in the free wild as they please. See Related: Best Books on Endangered Species. BBC - Ethics - Animal ethics: Animals for entertainment CreditPhotographs by Peter Fisher for The New York Times. Help inform others by writing letters to your local newspapers and posting to social media. The process of training an animal is a long and brutal one. The allure of baby animals and the crowds they pull can lead a zoological garden director to increase them to keep attracting customers. Animals have been going extinct for as long as there has been life on earthany weakling or disadvantageous animals get wiped out. Zoos also have the power to euthanize their animals when they themselves deem it permissible. But whether recent events have triggered a profound shift in public consciousness is harder to . When confined they rock, pull their hair and engage in other tics. In the case of America, our maps, developed with experts, show where extreme heat is causing the most deaths. ViewResources. That's not a record that justifies tens of millions of wild animals kept in zoos. Not investing enough when designing a habitat for your animals to save money. After being captives of the pandemic for more than a year, we have begun experiencing the pleasures of simple outings: dining al fresco, shopping with a friend, taking a stroll through the zoo. But the law excludes protection for birds, rats and mice, farmed animals and cold-blooded animals such as reptiles, amphibians and fish. On top of that, the animals dont have much freedom even in these tiny spaces that they are forced to live in. Cons of zoos Animal cruelty in zoos continues to be extremely common. What people can do: Justin Gillis and Hal Harvey describe the types of local activismthat might be needed, while Saul Griffith points to how Australia shows the way on rooftop solar. There is always that element of choice that gets removed from them in a captive environment. An example of these associations is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) which represents over 240 businesses across the globe. Climate change around the world: In Postcards From a World on Fire, 193 stories from individual countries show how climate change is reshaping reality everywhere, from dying coral reefs in Fiji to disappearing oases in Morocco and far, far beyond. As a result, many zoos breed animals. Why the world needs zoos | Dr Dave Hone | The Guardian Animals are forced to sleep, eat, and defecate in the same small area. Once an animal has served its purpose, many zoos will either sell them or euthanize them. Ms. Marris is an environmental writer and the author of the forthcoming book Wild Souls: Freedom and Flourishing in the Non-Human World.. They learned from their parents to be mistrustful because they have no way of knowing whether people could be good or do them harm. They often display neurotic behaviour, like repetitive pacing, swaying, and bar biting. For example, smaller and faster animals with a lot of predators in the wild tend to thrive in zoos. I remember well the awe and joy on their faces, 15 years later. In his Animal Park, which opened in 1907 in Hamburg, he designed cages that didnt look like cages, using moats and artfully arranged rock walls to invisibly pen animals. For example, if the number of lions is drastically reduced in an area, their prey will thrive. More than 6,000 comments made by the visitors were recorded, nearly half of which were purely descriptive statements that asserted a fact about the exhibit or the animal. The researchers wrote, In all the statements collected, no one volunteered information that would lead us to believe that they had an intention to advocate for protection of the animal or an intention to change their own behavior.. An animals worth is only equal to the attraction it offers to visitors. Visitors will hammer on the glass or clamor around an animal enclosure, calling and shouting for the creature to perform for their pleasure. Young chimpanzees on movie sets are trained through regular beatings and then discarded around age 8 when they become too large to control. In a study done on 40 chimpanzees in six different zoos, all of the chimps exhibited behavior their counterparts in nature did not. When wild animals shouldn't be in captivity. Theres also the Zoological Association of America that operates in the United States. Zoos - Pros & Cons - ProCon.org In the end, he said, we live with our own constraints. He added, We are all captive in some regards to social and ethical and religious and other constraints on our life and our activities.. People may behave eco-friendlier after going to the zoo. A zoological park is defined as an establishment designed for conservation, study, and public display. Declawing is extremely painful and causes permanent disability. Learn More. Fewer and fewer states are allowing residents to keep captive wild animals without a permit. These tours often pretend to talk about their animals natural habitat and inclinations.