Zoos

[ddrueding]

This morning I hated Zoos. The animals are kept in cages and that can't be a good thing. The whole concept seemed fairly barbaric. The SO really wanted to go, so we went anyway.

While there, I noticed the number of kids that were loving it. I expected screaming toddlers and other children banging on the glass, but instead what I heard was some kids asking really good questions. Things like the impact of global warming on an endangered Toucan, or why the Lions had such a large pen.

I came away from it thinking that perhaps they are worth it; that the cruelty to these specific animals is worth the education of the generations that have the power to wipe them out completely.

I'm sure some here hold strong opinions on the matter, and I would be interested to hear them. I'll also include some photos I took. They obviously are "cheating" as far as wildlife photography goes, but they were good practice anyway.

 

[jtr1962]

I have mixed feelings on this. The zoos which give animals plenty of roaming space, and are close to their natural habitat, are probably not a bad thing for the reasons you mentioned. The animals will likely live similarly to how they might in the wild, but free of their natural predators. On the other hand, a lion in a 50 square foot cage disgusts me. That's no different than a human being in a jail cell, although at least the human did something to deserve being there. And if you think about it a bit, aren't we doing something similar with our pet cats and dogs? Domestic cats especially are well-equipped to survive in the wild. Isn't keeping them in a home akin to keeping wild animals in a zoo, and for even less of a good reason? Not that it's necessarily bad for the animals. If a cat has never really known the freedom of the outdoors, then it can lead a perfectly fulfilling life in the home of a caring human. On the plus side, it'll likely live a lot longer. Zoos for the most part are a lot nicer for the animals than they used to be. Besides, at the rate we're destroying the planet, I fear the time will come where the only elephants or tigers or lions which exist will be in zoos.