What's Wrong With Zoos By Amy Whiting
Zoos. As young children we adored them, peeking into the monkey cages and staring in awe at fully grown tigers and lions meandering around. It was such the experience to be able to be so close to these animals that usually lived thousands of miles away. Even now, it is pretty inspiring to see an elephant less than a hundred feet away. However, the actions of zoos keeping animals in captivity have become questionable. According to “What’s Wrong with Zoos” by Amy Whiting as well as the “Blackfish” video and Dave Granlund cartoon, many times, the animals are not given enough space in their cages and are lonely away from others of their species. In addition, when zoos attempt to re-introduce them back into the wild, it often fails because the animals
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The natural instincts that the animals should develop in the wild are never established in captivity because they don’t have the experience. As the author writes in “What’s Wrong with Zoos?”, “Animals in zoos are merely shadows of their wild counterparts.” Without the space needed to exercise, practice hunting techniques, and just have the fun, animals are practically living out life sentences in these zoos. Animals that live in the wild are used to being free, and animals in captivity simply never get to experience the joy in the natural world. Even if they are reintroduced into the wild, “there are still difficulties with the process of re-introduction. Captive bred animals have often missed out on valuable lessons their wild parents would have taught them and therefore often do not have the instincts or knowledge to survive in the wild.” Furthermore, the political cartoon by Dave Granlund is a great example of this, because the animals are only used to the life inside cages and are unaware of the outside world and their true habitat. The gorilla belongs in the jungle, yet he thinks that the world outside of the cage is a “jungle”. The animals in captivity are becoming just shadows of their former glory in captivity and in order to restore their beauty, we must make sure zoos no longer hold any more animals in captivity. The “Blackfish” video states, “When the animals [whales] engage in rough play, they’ve been seen patting their playmates head with their fin…” In small pools in zoos, whales most likely lose the ability to do this and have fun in the wild because they cannot engage with as many of their species or have the room to do so. Animals need to be free and wild in the natural world, not pent up in a small cage to move around
The natural instincts that the animals should develop in the wild are never established in captivity because they don’t have the experience. As the author writes in “What’s Wrong with Zoos?”, “Animals in zoos are merely shadows of their wild counterparts.” Without the space needed to exercise, practice hunting techniques, and just have the fun, animals are practically living out life sentences in these zoos. Animals that live in the wild are used to being free, and animals in captivity simply never get to experience the joy in the natural world. Even if they are reintroduced into the wild, “there are still difficulties with the process of re-introduction. Captive bred animals have often missed out on valuable lessons their wild parents would have taught them and therefore often do not have the instincts or knowledge to survive in the wild.” Furthermore, the political cartoon by Dave Granlund is a great example of this, because the animals are only used to the life inside cages and are unaware of the outside world and their true habitat. The gorilla belongs in the jungle, yet he thinks that the world outside of the cage is a “jungle”. The animals in captivity are becoming just shadows of their former glory in captivity and in order to restore their beauty, we must make sure zoos no longer hold any more animals in captivity. The “Blackfish” video states, “When the animals [whales] engage in rough play, they’ve been seen patting their playmates head with their fin…” In small pools in zoos, whales most likely lose the ability to do this and have fun in the wild because they cannot engage with as many of their species or have the room to do so. Animals need to be free and wild in the natural world, not pent up in a small cage to move around