People Who Think Zoos should be Eliminated, Let Me Ask You This Question.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Now that PETA types have driven Barnum and Bailey out of business, you can bet that the next target will be zoos. There’s already talk all over about how cruel and unnatural it is for animals to be imprisoned in them. It’s only a matter of time before it will be uncomfortably un-PC to go to a zoo, with your family or without.

So, I have a question for folks who think it is only right that zoos should disappear.

If you had a chance to live as your wild ancestors did, no shelter except what you could make, no food except what you could hunt or gather, no clothing, no medical help, constantly fighting off feral bands of fellow human primitives along with other wild animals just as hungry as you, would you do it?

Because that is the natural world, my animal loving friends, nasty, brutish, and short.

We are captive creatures as much as zoo animals are. We didn’t ask for civilization, but here we are. The majority of zoo animals are bred in captivity, and those that aren’t are not longing for the good old days when they could roam freely for days on end because hunting is scarce, and nobody comes by with a cart full of meat. None of those lions are thinking how great it would be to be trampled by a buffalo, and none of those buffalo are nostalgic for the look of claw marks along their thighs. Most of those animals are lying around, just like you would be if you didn’t have to work your ass off to get money to eat.

Yes, the crappy roadside places should be gone, but reputable zoos are the best thing that ever happened to their inhabitants.

Now again, think. Would you have rather lived hundreds of thousands of years ago, because that’s the natural state of man? No? Then don’t presume a buffalo would either.

2

we choose to live as we do. animals in zoos have no such choice. while it may “seem” nicer to you to not have to forage for food, or fend off predators, it wouldnt seem that way to me if i didnt have a choice.

i wont even get into the disturbances in migratory, and breeding behaviors inflicted on these poor souls.

the nicest, cushiest, most well appointed jail, is still a jail!

mc

3

A better analogy is how many people who live in cages (otherwise known as “jails”) wish that they weren’t?

Animals that evolved to live in very small territories (which means mostly very small, or cold-blooded, or both) probably are fine with a small enclosure. For animals that evolved to have territories measured in miles, you can be damned sure that they aren’t any more happy living in a gilded cage than a human would be.

4

If you opened the doors to every cage and enclosure at a zoo, how many of the animals do you think would still be there after a week? Does not the fact that most would leave their enclosures prove that given a choice, they prefer freedom?

And if you think that’s a bad argument, explain why it’s better than your anthropomorphic argument about all animals desiring a life of leisure.

5

many on this message board, and across the internet are in a tizzy because they think hat the new government is going to make them live in a way that they find reprehensible.

shouldnt animals have just as much choice about their own lives as we do? or should we tell them how to live because we know best, and we’re making their lives better!

mc

6

So, you think the incarcerated, given the choice, would prefer to live as our wild ancestors rather than serve out their sentences?

7

But we do know best. That’s why we invented civilization.

8

Actually, Lester Fisher, director of the Lincoln Park Zoo, told of the story of a chimpanzee who escaped, got lost in the park, then ran to him hooting for protection when Mr Fisher found her later on. The experience was terrifying for her.

It’s not freedom animals are longing for. Animals do not have a conception of freedom. That’s a human thing. Curiosity is the more likely motive in your scenario.

9

For many species, it will be the difference between continued existence and extinction. Zoo animals also get to live parasite free.

I wonder how many of these PETA types would change their mind if they were constantly being stalked by things that want to kill and eat them.

10

I’m adding onto this to make this point. Animals, unfortunately, have only two options.
Life cared for in a zoo, or life in the wild. The first is dull, but comfortable. The second is arduous, perilous, fraught with terror and danger and suffering.

There’s no middle ground for them.

11

If you abruptly placed a primitive human into modern society, there’s a good chance the person won’t feel better off for it; there will be rough physiological issues.
Within generations, that human’s descendants can adapt; so it is with animals.
I can’t say I heartily embrace exploiting animals for anything. At least zoos have educational value including that which could one day assist wild animals have less harsh lives. I don’t see much of any educational value in the circus.

12

For what it’s worth, I agree that circuses are unnecessary.

13

Two Many Cats and madsircool i dont doubt for a second that you and those who make zoos have only the best intentions; its a noble thought. but youre still imposing what you think is best on creatures who have no say in the matter.

it may not be a fair analogy: but many societies feel that women are incapable of knowing what the right thing to do is, so they must be told how to live, that theyre trying to make their lives better by sheilding them from the outside world!

mc

14

Animals are incapable of making choices in their life. Its not like little Zippy Zebra can plan a peaceful productive life munching grass. Not when Lena Lion is ripping his throat out.

15

No, what they do have is behavioral instincts. And for most large mammal species, these instincts do not include spending their whole lives confined in the same few hundred (or even few thousand) square feet. Zoos are not doing animals any favors.

16

Tell that to white rhinos or gorillas.

17

its not the animals ability to make choices i’m talking about. its humans hubris that we know what best for them, and force them to do what is right!

mc

18

Whether keeping animals in a zoo helps preserve a species is irrelevant as to whether or not the animals are actually content and comfortable in a zoo. If the only way a species can live is in uncomfortable, artificial conditions, then maybe the more merciful thing to do is let them go extinct. White rhinos and gorillas give zero fucks about the concept of “species survival.”

19

Given population growth and habitat shrinkage, the only hope some animals have is the zoo. To save them would require massive amounts of planning and control of where humans might live that would run into local resistance and charges of racism. Unless we make very big sacrifices, many animal species will soon (in earth time) become extinct.

20

I’m glad you don’t get to make that choice for the specie or the world. There are other options. Just in So California, we had the late great Lion Country Safari and the San Diego Wild Animal Park.