Are Zoos Good or Bad

Eric Martinez

6/18/12

B4

Are Zoo’s Good or Bad?

Zoos serve as an attraction to people. They are accepted as useful and entertaining amenities, which are seen as educational. Children love seeing animals and a visit to the zoo has always been a treat. However, we should consider if the zoo is beneficial to people or harmful to animals. It’s cruel to leave animals caged up day in and day out not living in their natural habitats.

Zoo animals are kept in enclosures that don’t allow them to live their lives in a natural way. No matter how big some zoos try to make their bounded enclosures or how beautiful the paintings on the background wall are, they don’t compare to the natural habitat that animals are meant to be in. Animals such as zebras, gazelles, and giraffes are designed to run across miles of open terrain, not living out their lives in captivity. The bird’s wings are often clipped so they cannot fly, aquatic animals usually have little water, and the many animals that naturally live in large herds are kept alone or in pairs. The animals spend every day in the same area doing the same things over and over; their lives become very monotonous and boring. Some signs of boredom and stress that you often see in zoo animals are pacing backwards and forward, head bobbing, rocking, repeatedly retracing their steps, sitting motionless, or biting themselves. There’s no denying that the animals aren’t living as good of lives as they would be if they were in the wild.

The animals at the zoo are often treated unfairly. Newborns are taken away from their mothers. Also, the surplus animals that no longer attract visitors are killed, sometimes fed to their fellow zoo habitants, or sold to other zoos or dealers. The animals are depressed, bored, and very stressed. For example, studies have shown that 30 percent of a bear’s life is spent