Zoos Locking up Animals Just isn't Right (specifically referring to birds)

The BBQ Pit
1

I’ve thought a little about this and it kind of makes me feel like zoos may be a good family trip, but I’m starting to get the sense that it’s more like a jail for all those animals, and all they want to do is roam around free.

It kind of makes me feel upset because take a bird for instance. Birds love to fly around, right? Well I bet a lot of the birds they probably caught, tied them up (or confined them in some way), and cut their wings off, or either caged them up. I’m not very knowledgeable on the process, but my point is that birds really like to fly, and to cage them up or take away their ability to fly just seems really sad. I went to an aquarium in Florida Fall of 2011, and we saw these birds sitting on tree branches, and we were wondering why weren’t they flying? So then my dad told me to go ask one of the people there, and I did, and they said, “Oh we cut their wings off.” When she said that, that almost made me feel sick to my stomach and when I told my dad, he had a blank/quiet reaction and said that he doesn’t like this.

I think it’s the worst for the birds by the way, but I think the same idea goes for a lot of animals as well. For example, seeing snakes confined in a glass tank doesn’t make me feel that much better either. Even fish to some extent seems wrong because again, they don’t have the whole ocean/river to swim in. I think maybe bears and tigers, and other mammals have it fine to some extent as they usually get a lot of space, but it’s still a little wrong because again, they’re not free!

Some may argue that their life expectancy increases, but do the animals really care? They don’t know this whole “life expectancy” thing like they do. All they want to do is live! I feel like zoos are in a way just like animal jails. Yes they may treat them fine, but it’s not like they are enjoying themselves there.

I know people just want to see and explore, but this doesn’t mean we should be taking away others’ freedom. Just because we’re so technically advanced doesn’t mean we should take advantage of the other animals. Now that is what an animal does. The second they can get an advantage they strive to get it. Animals are selfish, even humans are! But since we are so advanced, we should be a little smarter and understand that it’s not right to do this.

2

On the one hand, I’ll never own a bird as a pet for reasons fairly similar to those described in your post. On the other hand, congratulations on taking the title of Most Sophomoric Doper.

3

Are you sure it wasn’t a misspeak? “Clipping” wings is not painful and doesn’t cause permanent damage; you just have to redo it periodically. He didn’t literally mean that they severed the wing at the shoulder.

Snakes don’t care. They don’t need space. Fish it depends on species. I have seen many large enclosures for birds, where they all fly around and such. Some zoos are better than others, and I expect the quality of that zoo depends on where in Florida it was.

I say you have to weigh the good with the bad, and for most zoos the good is greater. Many animals are in zoos because they will die in the wild. They never learned the survival skills, and this isn’t always due to humans. Others are endangered, like pandas, and as a benefit they can be lucrative if popular. I don’t know if you think nature is some idyllic, safe place? Many species have a lifespan that is 200% over nature or so in zoos.

As a plus, zoos piss off PETA, so they can’t be all bad.

4

And among the endangered animals, there are sometimes more in zoos than are left in the wild and the breeding programs are the only hope for that specie’s survival.

5

If the person you spoke to literally said “we cut their wings off,” she should probably be fired for misrepresenting what was done. I suspect you are misremembering or misquoting. No reputable zoo in the US would actually cut the wings off. What is typically done is that the wing feathers are clipped, which does not hurt the bird. The feathers need to be clipped each year when new ones grow back after molt.

Waterfowl are sometimes pinioned, that is, the outer joint of the wing is removed so that the wings don’t have to be clipped every year. But you wouldn’t do this to a parrot or other tree living bird, since they use their wings for balance when climbing about.

I’m no great fan of confining birds in cages in general - I prefer to see them in the wild. I don’t keep pet birds myself. But zoos have an important role in conservation and education. Most modern zoos try to breed the animals have in captivity, especially the endangered ones, in order to have a reserve against extinction in the wild and sometimes to provide stock for reintroduction. And when people can see and learn about birds in zoos, they may be more willing to take steps to help conserve them in the wild.

6

Actually, that scenario didn’t occur in a zoo, but in an aquarium. But yes, she literally said that.

7

How did the birds get to the tree branches if they couldn’t fly?

8

Any place that was certified to keep animals on public display wouldn’t be cutting the wings off birds, whether it was a zoo or aquarium. This person was an idiot (or else she was just pulling your leg.)

9

Looking at it from the point of view of the caged animals, there are pluses and minuses.

The big minus is being kept in a limited space, and for some animals having people watching them all the time would be an issue – though I suspect some animals, like the apes, might actually enjoy people watching,

But the pluses include freedom from predators, a steady food supply without the need to go hunting for it, and expert veterinary care if they get sick. So life wouldn’t be all bad for zoo animals.

10

Well they probably cut their wings off (this is all just a guess), and then they probably put them on the branches by hand. But a couple things are for sure, they weren’t flying, and the person really did say, “We cut their wings off.”

11

I’m opposed to keeping birds in aquariums.

12

Why is anybody engaging this troll fuckwit?

13

And they nailed their feet in place, you think?

14

I think most zookeepers would probably agree that animals in zoos are not in an ideal situation, but that zoos ultimately benefit wild animal populations by keeping representative species in the eye of the public. Few people have the opportunity to travel to India to see bengal tigers in the wild, but zoos allow us to encounter these animals face to face and, ideally, to understand a little more about what their problems are in the wild. Any kid knows the difference between seeing a tiger on TV and the visceral immediacy of seeing one live. And when we are moved to protect the habitat of wild tigers, we also protect all the other species found in that habitat.

Also, for some critically endangered species, zoos are unfortunately the only way to maintain the population after they can no longer survive in the wild, usually because there is no longer a wild environment there to support them. In the admittedly unlikely event that it becomes possible to secure or restore a habitat for these species, careful monitoring of breeding is necessary to maintain maximum genetic diversity.

It wasn’t always this way. Public zoos were originally an extension of private menageries. In the 19th century animals were collected largely for their curiosity value alone, with little to no regard for their physical or emotional needs, and were kept in confinement that would be considered cruel and unacceptable by any reputable zoo today. This attitude continued well into the 20th century, and arguably is still the case for most unregulated private zoos and exotic animal breeders.

However, as it became apparent that many animals were being driven to extinction and the importance of conservation became more obvious, the focus of zoos has shifted to support and communicate this message. At least in reputable zoos, a great deal of attention is paid to the animals’ environmental requirements.

Many people are understandably upset by the thought of animals being confined, and I think that’s a good thing. Concern for animal welfare has greatly contributed to the evolution of zoos, and the pressure of public opinion will eventually force the unfit, unacceptable facilities to reform or perish.

I think pretty much all professional zookeepers would also prefer the animals in their care to be as happy as possible, and their habitats to generally be as close to a wild state as the situation will allow and the species requires. You really don’t go into zookeeping because of the money, you do it because you love animals.

As far as the situation with the birds’ wings: wow, they could have communicated that a lot better. No idea what the situation was with the aquarium you visited, but it is often the practice to “pinion” a bird’s wing to restrict its flight. It really doesn’t mean cutting off the whole wing, if that makes you feel better. Usually the bone at the wingtip is removed, which prevents the flight feathers from growing out on that side. This is generally done right after the bird has hatched; I have been told that the nerves to the extremities have not developed fully at that point, so the process is less traumatic than it might seem. However, an increasingly common alternative is to surgically remove the flight feather shafts without damaging the bone. I believe this has to be done at an older age though, so there are tradeoffs.

Other sorts of birds can be flight-restricted just by cutting the feathers themselves, but the feathers grow back so this has to be done every few months.

In no case, I hope to hell, does anyone cut the bird’s whole wing off. That would be nuts. I think you may have just asked a part-time keeper who failed to explain the procedure properly.

15

He’s just pining for the fjords.

16

No. But even if they could move with their feet, it just doesn’t seem right to take their ability to fly.

This was actually “Sea World” we went to.

And to the person that says I’m a troll, I seriously am not. I may have been obnoxious with MIT applications, but one, it wasn’t intended to piss you guys off, and two I’m not like that anymore. I’m not so obsessed with college anymore and even my parents are actually thinking about just sending me to a good non-top school like University of Connecticut, or something like that for my undergraduate year because they want to save money (we have had a lot of expenses recently), and two, you guys were right: the school you go to as an undergrad doesn’t really have much effect, at least not as much as your last school or graduate school.

Anyways, I got side-tracked but I was just trying to tell you guys that I’m not a troll despite what I have shown in the MIT thread.

17

If you don’t think you’ll ever get to talk to Karl Pilkington or some kind of real-life Saturday Night Live idiot character, this is probably your best chance. Might as well enjoy it until it gets too boring and one-dimensional.

18

I know people who have worked at SeaWorld Orlando, and whatever else can be said about their overall animal welfare concerns (quite a lot could be said, I think), I can guarantee they do not cut the birds’ wings off to keep them from flying.

The more I think about it, the more I suspect that the person you talked to was trying to be funny and failing.

19

I worked in a zoo for a couple of years. It was pretty cool.

Animals for the most part, don’t care about abstracts like “freedom”. They need exercise, especially the type that roam a lot. But here’s what animals want:

  1. Water
  2. Food
  3. Shelter
  4. Socializing with other animals (according to their species’ needs, of course)

Overcrowding and boredom are real problems which any reputable zoo takes seriously. From the animals perspective, these problems pale compared to the problems of humans shooting at them and building houses right where the animals are trying to live.

Ideally, animals could live wild in their natural habitats and pursue their natural, uh … natures. Animals are not idealists and don’t care.

20

They didn’t. This is too stupid for anybody to believe: you think they chopped off some birds’ wings, stuck them in a tree, and the birds just lived there and stayed there without distress?

Seaworld doesn’t have too many birds. Parrots, vultures, a few others. If you go to their website you could probably figure out what they were. And for that matter you’d see pictures of the birds with their wings intact.

Or was a 15-year-old intern on her first day. Or didn’t count on the brain of the person she was speaking to.