Topic: Should animals be kept in zoos?
Zoo is known as a place to keep endangered animals in a protected
environment and teach the public about the delicate balance between animal
species and their habitats. Statistics reveal that there are about 600,000 birds and mammals are kept in the world’s zoos. Although it is believed that zoos are necessary to provide a safe environment, animals should not be kept in zoos for the following reasons.
The first reason is that animals will lose their important skills gradually if
they live in a zoo for a long time. Endangered species will not know how to hunt
for food, protect themselves or find their mates on their own because of unsuitable
environment. Dr. Rees (2009) reported that while elephants could contact with members of their own species to develop normal behavior patterns and friendship with complex social structure, elephants kept in small groups couldnot learn important
social skills such as finding a mate or greeting rituals. According to a team of
researchers from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom (2008), the
natural behaviors needed for success in the wild of animals tend to lose due to
captivity. By reason of lack of fear towards humans and hunting skills, endangered
species could die if they were returned to their natural habitat. This research found that
captive-born carnivores were not only more vulnerable but also more likely to
starve to death than their wild-bred counterparts.
Another important reason is that life expectancy of animals kept in zoos
tends to reduce dramatically. Living in zoos means that animals have to face up
with a lot of mental and physical health problems that affect seriously animal’s
life circle (“Last chance for animal”, para.1). Researchers compared the lifetimes
of elephants in Europe and reported that lifespan of animals living in natural
condition was about twice as long as their relatives kept in zoos (“Zoos shorten
elephant’s life, para.2). The article “ Extension: animal prisoners” stated that the
median lifespan for African elephants in European zoos was 16.9 years, compared
with 56 years for elephants which died of natural causes.
Opponents of keeping animals in zoos say that endangered species, when living zoos, can be protected from many diseases that can kill animals if they live in a wild environment. That may be true in some extent. However, the fact is that animals can suffer from health problems in zoos. The article “Stress and lack of exercise are killing elephants” reported that many of elephant’s deaths were link to suffering high stress level after being transferred between zoos and separated from their mother. Besides, although elephants were well fed, they got very little exercise in their small enclosures so these elephants died of obesity. According to Department for environment, Food and Rural Affairs which examined the welfare of 77 elephants in 13 UK zoos reported that the animals spent 83% of their time indoors and 71 were overweight, only 11 able to walk normally.
In conclusion, there are several reasons to stop keeping animals in zoos. It is
difficult to avoid losing innate behaviors of animals, reducing their life time when people force animals to live in zoos. People cannot keep endangered species in an artificial
environment without freedom, animals have rights to live by their own ways.
Therefore, animals should not be kept in zoos.
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I think the single most important part of your post is your conclusion, namely that animals should not be in zoos. Who gives us human beings the right to decide that other creatures should live in captivity while we destroy our planet causing millions of species to become extinct in the process?
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