Argumentative Essay About Zoos

To an outsider zoo's can appear to be various environments, harsh or beneficial, for example, but is there more than meets the eye? Many zoos will use conservation as a buzzword because it will catch attention and draw you to believe things as said in Rob Laidlaw’s, “Zoos Myth and Reality.” On the contrary, Michael Hutchins, author of “Zoos Connect us to the Real World, states there is much coverage of the positive nurturing of zoos. Overall, today zoos are more educated and take utmost care of their animals, plus 90% of accredited mammals were born in zoos, and now zoos are really striving to improve the lives of their animals. Many will claim only an infrequent quantity of animals become self-sustaining again after being placed into a zoo. “Only 16 species have established self-sustaining populations in the wild…” (Laidlaw 17-18) Although this may be correct, “today more than 90 percent of the mammals in accredited facilities were born in zoos and not taken from the wild.” (Hutchins 49-52) This demonstrated zoos have truly been doing well at their job with helping animals and nurturing them. Evidently, today’s zoos have become more educated and are doing a very exquisite job taking care of their animals. For example, gorillas, they are “...kept in large,
As mentioned by Hutchins, “The best zoos include conservation, education, and science among their core missions, and the animals in their collections can be viewed as ambassadors for their counterparts in the wild. Many species are endangered or threatened and would have little chance of survival without human intervention. Increasingly, zoos are playing an important role in those efforts.” Even though Laidlaw goes and says that “I can’t understand why the more responsible segments of the zoo industry have not come to their senses and acknowledged the obvious—the present state of zoos is