What Makes San Diego's Zoo The Most Famous In The Country?

Zoo visitors started going to zoos to learn more about the animals. However, nowadays people go to zoos to be entertained by the animals. People seem to always talk about going to the zoo but, while at the zoo, most people are usually talking about a completely unrelated topic as they go from exhibit to exhibit, and they spend less than a minute at each enclosure. This gives people very little time to view the animals, let alone read the description of that particular type of animal. Thus, zoos hold animals captive to entertain and please people, not to enlighten them. When people visit zoos, they rarely think about what the animals are going through. People usually assume the animals are content and well taken care of. They assume the
enclosures are up-to-date, and they rarely question anything. When a visitor sees an animal in distress, the person hardly thinks about what that particular animal is going though.
Most people fail to realize animals are very much like humans, yet they treat them like they are nothing. Both people and animals eat, sleep, move around, and get exercise. Animals such as gorillas and monkeys share many things in common. They both have hair, legs, arms, and opposable thumbs. Even animals such as snakes share similarities to people. People and snakes have great minds, they eat, sleep, and poop. They even shed skin, which is weird to think about. Both animals and people have the ability to love. Some animals are put in a cage because there mate it there. Despite the similarities people share with animals, people can be cruel. People are frequently seen throwing items at the animals, and when a person throws an inedible item in an enclosure, they fail to think of the side effects. Rarely would a human walk up to stranger and throw a toy at them because they were not doing anything exciting nor keep them in a cage for that matter.
All zoos have animals, gift shops, drink stands, food stands, and workers. Someone may go to a zoo, and therefore, see these things. Knowing this, zoos spend an extraordinary amount of money on various things. In order for a zoo to run, many workers are needed, and thus more money is spent. In order for the zoo to stay going, money has to be made using things like drink and food stands. However, most of the money is also put into the stands instead of the animals. Along with this, the zoo has to pay for the necessities such as electricity, water supply, etc. The minuscule amount of money left in the budget is then put towards the animals. The animals end up suffering tremendously due to this. Zoos are lacking food and proper supplies which could help the animal overcome other needs such as getting a better enclosure to better suit their environment or getting better trained vets or finding help when animals develop a mental disease. The animals’ enclosures rarely get updated because they are not a major priority in the budget. Animals lack proper animal care and medicine.
There are many guidelines in place for all zoos to abide by. Some zoos take these guidelines very seriously while others look the other way. When zoos are being evaluated to see if they meet all of the requirements, the overseer might give the zoo a break and say something is okay when it is not. Many things are immensely overlooked when they should not be. Roadside zoos typically never meet requirements because they are rarely checked. Roadside zoos are unprofessional zoos run people who obviously have no desire to actually care for the animals. They often get animals when professional zoos no longer want because it is all they are able to obtain . The professional zoos sell their unwanted animals to roadside zoos because the animals are no longer cute. Sometimes they sell a particular animal because the animal obtains a mental disorder, and visitors do not want to visit a zoo where the animals are deranged. The animals with a mental disorder are not helped and they will not get better at a roadside zoo (Laidlaw 1). If all zoos cannot get closed down, then a good alternative would be to close down roadside zoos due to the brutality the animals go through; animals at these zoos do not deserve what they go through while at them.
Some zoos are trying to change their ways by closing exhibits that hurt the animals, such as an elephant exhibit.
Zoos are just beginning to expand their minds and finally start thinking about the animals. Other zoos take in animals from roadside zoos and circuses in order to offer those animals a better life. Of course, these zoos are very rare to come across because they are so few of them, however with some research, one can easily locate one. The San Diego Zoo is one of the few zoos that is truly extraordinary. The zoo is strongly fighting against animal extinctions and want what is best for the animals (“What Makes San Diego's Zoo the Most Famous in the Country?” 1). Many zoos seem to lack the fight San Diego Zoo possesses. It is home to one of the four giant panda exhibits in the world. The zoo offers the best care possible for the animals and the animals are their number one priority, which is much more than most zoos can say. However, zoos should be closed down because even though not all zoos are bad, a big percentage of them do mistreat the
animals. There are many ways to help these zoo animals from suffering terribly.
One option would be to not visit zoos. This can lead to zoos eventually closing down. They cannot run a zoo if not enough people go. If all zoos were to be closed down, the animals would most likely be sent to sanctuaries where the animals could be properly cared for. Animal sanctuaries are typically better than zoos because it offers more room for animals to roam, provides a permanent home for the animals, prohibits the chaining of animals, offers the animals the choice of companions, and offers much more funding for the animals (“Zoos vs Sanctuaries - In Defense of Animals” 1). Instead of going to zoos, people could visit animal sanctuaries. Another way to help the zoo animals would be to educate people. Tell them about the brutality the animals go through and how they can help. By doing so, animals can get the freedom they need in order to obtain a life of
enjoyment. In the past few years, there have been many dramatic stories that came into the media's attention. The most intriguing story seemed to involve Churchill and Penny. Churchill and Penny did absolutely nothing wrong, and yet they died. The two didn’t get the proper care they needed and they were tormented for no apparent reason. People torment animals without realizing the similarities the two share. Additionally, zoo animals tend to develop a mental disorder due to various reasons including no place to roam, lack of food, being taken from the wild, not having interactions with other animals, and being shipped numerous times. Occasionally, a zoo animal becomes so bored of the same routine that he or she decides to attack an animal in the same enclosure or even the zoo keeper. Zoo animals are deprived of a life where they can actually enjoy themselves. They deserve not to be held in zoos due to the lack of care, being tormented, a small budget, a lack of guidelines, and unnecessary death.