Zoos

'dickhead' is a fightin word paul. i didn't get anything about superiority in seamonster's comment. you totally missed the point

 

dickhead is a fighting word?. excuse me while i give mr.s a fight then.she/s allways calling me that (we dont fight)..............i appologise if i offended anyone . this thread has freaked me out . nothing breathing should be caged (unless its a monster) in my opinion

 

i don't want to fight about whether this is a fight or not, i just thought i'd point out that other people (me) don't think he said anything about superiority. He needed some backup on that one.

 

jib it then you said what you have said .i think ZOO/S AND CAGES are evil.

 

well, zoos are o.k. because its a place for animals who are endangered to go, so if their species dies, they are still left. and they have other animals to talk to. but i guess you could say it's like jail to them, which is a bad thing. but i've heard they're trying to get ride of elephants in the circus, due to the way they are treated, and where would they go without the zoo? at least, thats where i think they'd go. so it seems to be somewhat good.

 

hi rainbow.surely they would be taken back to there natural habitat.ie=mother earth(where they belong).you could have rangers out their to look after them.........just a thought

 

a well maintained zoo can do a lot of good, such as education about the animals, and most importantly, exposure of beautiful creatures to kids. however, a lot of zoos have dismal living space for the animals, and like someone said earlier, those zoos should definatly be dismantled becuase they are doing little good for any cause. i saw some rare type of bear at a zoo once, it was a type of kodiak, the biggest of the brown bears, but it had stripes, i dont remember all that well, but anyway, it was pacing, back and forth from one end of its tiny cage to the other, literally non stop pacing; the bear had gone crazy from having so little space

 

Well, since I started this "pointless" thread, I thought I might as well give my opinion. I agree that animals should not be caged or held captive. I don't like the idea of zoos now that I have given it more thought. Perhaps, a conservatory for animals that kept them only under necessary circumstances ( protection from humans) would be fine, but a zoo...where rich men get richer at the expense of the animals...just doesn't feel ok to me.

 

I think most modern zoos are okay. They certainly do their best to take care of the animals, and have important tasks both in conserving species and education. Breeding programs are working better and better, and many animals are being released into the wild every year; to just release all animals just won't work. Often too much of their natural habitat is gone, which we can't just 'give back' (only part of it is taken over by big companies that could still survive with a little less profit -lots of endangered species come from places where the people live in poverty, too). And, as others have mentioned, those animals that have been raised in captivity wouldn't survive if we just put them in a transport box, flew them out to their native habitat and opened the cage. Often the young animals in the breeding programs are either carefully kept from most contact with humans, or are given extensive training in gathering their own food rather than just waiting for it to show up in their food bowl at certain times.


Education is important too; if you show children only pictures of elephants, giraffes and tigers, they won't be near as 'real' as when they've actually seen them, stood there and watched them feed and play... Sure, it also depends on the child, some will be enthralled by a good book or documentary and others will stand there in a zoo and only care for getting an ice cream and going home to watch cartoons on tv... but on the whole, it does make a difference when children see the actual animals, they'll feel more for them... and that in turn means they're more likely to care about the environment and natural habitat of those animals, too.

It is of course important how zoos treat their animals. One of our Dutch zoos had a photo presentation last year of the zoo in the first half of the last century; monkeys on leashes, baby tigers being petted like kittens and children riding the elephants. That was not even that long ago! Now, some of the enclosures are so large and filled with plants, rocks and other 'natural' hiding places that if you're out of luck, you won't get to see some of the animals, or you just see a small patch of fur among the leaves waaaaaaaay in the back. Of course sometimes people complain about it but I think it's very good they care more for the comfort of the animals now... Also some zoos I know are 'missing' some of the major animals because they feel they can't house them well enough... same zoo no longer has a rhino. And they also come up with many creative ways to feed them; not just giving them ready-to-eat meals but hiding stuff, putting food into balls with holes in them, and similar things.

 

Zoos are a tricky thing. In some zoos, the animals are protected from poachers and hunters. At the same time, the animals cannot roam freely like God intended for them to do. wow, humans have really messed up this planet

 

I more prefer reserves. Although for certain animals who dont really know or care the difference between its nautural habitats and zoos, it doesnt really matter to them. But for animals who like to run and be free, preserves are a much better way.

 

The Atlanta zoo is pretty good, I think. They have plenty of room to play and there are also places where they can go where they won't be seen by people, so it's not like they're under constant scrutany. The gorillas there are very much well loved and the entire city of Atlanta mourned a few years ago when Willy B- our oldest gorilla- died of old age.

The thing is, if most of these animals at the zoo were set free, they would die. Most zoos now fit higher standards where the animals have good habitats and are there to be kept safe from endangerment in the wild. Also, kids like I was when I was little get to see their favorite animals (in my case, elephants) in real life and many of them get excited and are driven to want to help them.

 

i agree some zoos are good but i remember watching this documentary on this gorilla of some kind that was put in this tiny cage for like nearly its whole life, it couldn't even walk or anythin just sat there for people to see it, and some people wondered why it was so depressed.
Tho for people who completly disagree about zoos, i think that some safari's are of good cause, like the kruger national park in south africa, they do their best to protect endaged species from illegal poachers and stuff. Obviosly you need to own a vast amount of land to have a safari but still.

 

i dont approve of zoos i think the animals should be free to live thier lifes. only endangerd animals should be kept on RESERVATIONS!!! i love animals and animals love freedome god didnt make animals to live in cages. i know that some animals soposedly would rether live with like the circus but i do belive they should be free!

love allways,
groovygirl

 

I've recently done a module in management of exotics, which is basically running of zoos. I don't know about the states, but here in the UK, new legistaltion has really toughened up the way zoos must be run. From now on, all zoos must have a role in conservation and/or education. They can't just be places that hold animals anymore, they have to have a purpose. You'd be suprised how much goes into the running of zoos, and many are showing the initiative to give the animals environmental enrichment (making their enclosure mimic the natural habitat, thus enocuraging natural behaviour).

Okay, so zoos aren't the best places, and even the best enclosure can't completely mimic the wild, but until ALL habitat destruction and hunting are abolished off the face of the earth, there isn't much choice. Yes, reserves are great, but there isn't alot of room for them anymore. Remember, we have zoos to thank for the existance of Lion Tailed Tamarins and Black Footed Ferrets, to name but a few, animals which would now no doubt be extinct without their breeding programs.

 

I used to love zoos, but now I just get depressed by them. I've been to three in my life, the Milwaukee zoo, the Madison zoo, and the Cincinatti (sp) zoo. I wouldn't call them "awful" places compared to say a roadside zoo, but I really don't think zoos fulfill the purposes of education or conservation, at least not as much as people think they do. They're entertainment venues, pure and simple.

I'm sure a good number of them support the conservation of animals in their own natural habitats, but as far as keeping them from going extinct... in my opinion, an animal that you can -only- find in a zoo may as well be extinct. Why should any species be forced to exist solely for the amusement of humans? If an animal can no longer be found in the wild, what is the purpose of keeping them in zoos other to entertain us? Not all zoo breeding is strictly to help a species survive in the wild. Sometimes zoo collecting was even one of the major factors in the decline of a species in the wild! While successes with helping a species survive are great, plenty of breeding in zoos is simply to stock zoos.

Zoos are often touted to be educational... but I don't see what exactly is educational about them that you couldn't learn in better detail elsewhere. You learn where they live, what they eat, simple stuff like that. At the Milwaukee zoo, for example, some of the big cats are kept in cages no bigger than my living room. All they do is lay down and pace. There is no foliage other than what is painted on the walls. This isn't how all of the enclosures are, and some of them are pretty impressive... but just seeing that caracal walking back and forth in what appears to be utter boredom is absolutely depressing. I don't get what exactly we're learning from that.

When I was young (and still now) I loved to learn. When I went to the zoo, were I able to, I would have read every sign, read every brochure, and payed very close attention to what the animals were doing. Instead, anybody supervising me, whether it was my parents or teachers, would rush me through, basically saying "Look at that pretty animal. And that one!" Try telling somebody at a zoo a fact about an animal that isn't on a sign. Half the time they will stare at you blankly. People aren't there to read the signs and learn about animals, they're there to watch monkeys beat their chests and see seals do tricks. Zoos are there to -entertain- you, not educate you.

 

i dont support any type of zoo. or circus for that matter. i really like animals, so when i was younger i loved going, but then i saw a tiger and it had a little island- like 25 feet diameter, and a little moat. and it was the saddest thing i ever saw. it couldnt even run around. animals like that are born to hunt, and its not fair. even zoos that are breeding endangered animals, its just not worth it. maybe if we had been more careful to begin with, animals wouldnt be endangered.