Do u hate zoo's?

Question

Do u hate zoo's?

Answer 1

Absolutely not. I am strongly in favour of zoos. They are vital for education and conservation. Without captive breeding, many endangered species would now be extinct - for example, the golden lion tamarin, red wolf and Przewalski's horse. I am not for a moment suggesting that we should stop trying to protect animals' natural habitats, but if endangered species were to become extinct in the wild (which sadly seems quite likely in the near future), zoos will have preserved them for future generations, with enough genetic diversity that the possibility for reintroduction to the wild exists. In my opinion it would be unforgivable to allow tigers, pandas and so on to become extinct because they were wiped out in the wild due to hunting, habitat loss, etc., and people did not want to see them in captivity. Would you like to explain to your children or grandchildren that they will never see a tiger except in pictures, because you disagreed with zoos?

It's true that captive conditions in the past were often cruel, the animals being kept in cramped cages and so on, but today all good zoos are carefully regulated - the animals are kept in conditions as close as possible to their natural habitat, with plenty of space, good diets and immediate medical care if they need it. Everything possible is done to ensure that they don't get bored - environmental enrichment is found in all good zoos. The animals will have scenery in their enclosure, things to play with if they're a playful species, and problems to solve in order to get their food, rather than it just being dropped in front of them.

It's important to remember that animals in zoos are captive-bred - they have not been taken from the wild and 'locked up in cages'. They were born in captivity and have known nothing else. They do not miss the wild, since they have no idea such a thing exists, and are certainly not unhappy - if they were, zoos would not achieve the breeding success they do (unhappy or unhealthy animals do not breed). One might even argue that they are better off in captivity, since they do not have to contend with the constant dangers of the wild - disease, injury, predation, starvation, etc.