My son came to me last night and said, “You need to call the school and tell them I can’t be there Thursday, I said, Why?
“They are doing Bay Day as a Field Trip to the Zoo”. So proud of him! It gave me the chance to speak up for the animals too.
My son has never been where an animal has been held captive.
Choosing zoos as a means for species preservation, in addition to being expensive and of dubious effectiveness, has serious ethical problems. Keeping animals in zoos harms them, by denying them freedom of movement and association, which is important to social animals, and frustrates many of their natural behavioral patterns, leaving them at best bored, and at worst seriously neurotic.
Zoos, like any other business, are designed to make a profit. With money as their first priority, it is not uncommon for zoos to sacrifice the welfare of individual animals to save financial resources. Animals who “misbehave” at the zoo are often “encouraged” to behave through the use of violence. The life of boredom and purposeless existence which goes along with captivity often causes the animals to engage in abnormal and self-destructive behaviors called “zoochosis”. The animals are closely confined, lack privacy, and have little opportunity for mental or physical exercise. Symptoms of zoochosis include nervous pacing, head rocking, and self-mutilation.
In captivity, it is almost impossible to meet the animals’ natural needs. For example, birds’ wings may be clipped to prevent flying and animals who would naturally live in large herds or family groups (such as elephants) are kept either in pairs or alone. A problem most zoos encounter is the existence of “surplus” animals. To free up space for “cuter” – and therefore more profitable – animals, many zoos sell surplus animals to dealers who ultimately sell the animals to laboratories for experiments.
While most zoos claim to educate the public about endangered species, the vast majority of animals in zoos are not endangered, nor are they being rehabilitated for release into the wild. If we truly want to help animals in the wild, we must preserve their habitats and combat the reasons humans kill them. Keeping animals behind bars for the sake of our entertainment is not the solution.
I Do Not Support Zoos