Many of us have been to a zoo at least once in our lives before. Zoos are premises for the captivity of animals, where they are studied and displayed for the public to see. Have you ever stopped to think of the trauma that the animal went through while being taken from its family and its home, to be locked behind a cage for the rest of his life? Do you remember leaving the zoo that day knowing a whole lot more about animals than you did before? Although zoos can be fun to visit, in reality, zoos go against the natural way an animal should be living and therefore, animals should not be kept in captivity.
We all have the right to be free. It’s hard for us to imagine being taken away from our parents to a whole new environment, to live behind bars or in a small tank or enclosure for the rest of our lives. This happens every day to many wild animals and it’s not right. Some people say that animals in zoos are well looked after and are happy, but wild animals need their freedom, and don’t enjoy captivity. No matter how well their keepers care for them, many suffer because from stress, anxiety, depression or even an eating disorder because of their improper diet. The lifespan of a mammal is also 2-3 times higher in the wild than in captivity. Animals kept in captivity also don’t develop many of the basic skills of hunting, mating and surviving out in the wild. Although there are some zoos where animals (endangered species) are taken from the wild to protect those, studies have shown that only 2% of the world’s 6,000 threatened or endangered species were registered in zoo breeding programs. So, in reality, zoos actually do very little to help save the world’s endangered animals.
Zoos are very large businesses used to attract the public to make money. Although many zoos claim to educate the general public about their animals, it is hard to see how looking at caged animals can teach us anything about their lives in the