The Role of Zoos in Conservation: Ethical Considerations
Rachel Stillman
HONH242
11/27/12
The Role of Zoos in Conservation: Ethical Considerations
As the animal rights movement has developed and grown substantially in recent years, there has been an increased focused on the welfare of captive animals. A popular institution that has received much attention for keeping animals captive is the zoo. Because of this focus, zoos have responded by publicizing their positive benefits for existence in order to justify keeping these animals on display. Since the term “zoo” can have a wide variety of meaning and characteristics, it is important to define what constitutes a zoo in this essay. Zoos are defined as a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred. The zoos referred to in this paper describe their mission as an organization facilitating conservation, education and recreation. One of the largest and most popular of these, the San Diego Zoo, describes their organization as “being dedicated to the reproduction, protection, and exhibition of animals, plants and their habitats” (San Diego Zoo). As shown in the previous mission statement, one of the main arguments zoos use to justify keeping wild animals in captivity is species conservation. In this paper, I will address the arguments for which zoos claim that they are an appropriate institution for animal conservation. The three main reasons they present are prevention of species extinction, captive breeding, and successfully reintroducing animals into the wild. I will also provide the respective counter-arguments, which suggest that zoos do not contribute positively to the animal conservation movement.
The first and most broad argument is that zoos contribute to preventing the extinction of a species. This claim is based on the concept that zoos keep endangered animals safe and try and help individual species repopulate within captivity. To fully evaluate the validity of this claim, we must
HONH242
11/27/12
The Role of Zoos in Conservation: Ethical Considerations
As the animal rights movement has developed and grown substantially in recent years, there has been an increased focused on the welfare of captive animals. A popular institution that has received much attention for keeping animals captive is the zoo. Because of this focus, zoos have responded by publicizing their positive benefits for existence in order to justify keeping these animals on display. Since the term “zoo” can have a wide variety of meaning and characteristics, it is important to define what constitutes a zoo in this essay. Zoos are defined as a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred. The zoos referred to in this paper describe their mission as an organization facilitating conservation, education and recreation. One of the largest and most popular of these, the San Diego Zoo, describes their organization as “being dedicated to the reproduction, protection, and exhibition of animals, plants and their habitats” (San Diego Zoo). As shown in the previous mission statement, one of the main arguments zoos use to justify keeping wild animals in captivity is species conservation. In this paper, I will address the arguments for which zoos claim that they are an appropriate institution for animal conservation. The three main reasons they present are prevention of species extinction, captive breeding, and successfully reintroducing animals into the wild. I will also provide the respective counter-arguments, which suggest that zoos do not contribute positively to the animal conservation movement.
The first and most broad argument is that zoos contribute to preventing the extinction of a species. This claim is based on the concept that zoos keep endangered animals safe and try and help individual species repopulate within captivity. To fully evaluate the validity of this claim, we must
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