Reasons Why Animals Should not Be Kept in Zoos

I went to the zoo a few weeks ago, and I was watching the Rainforest Fights Back Show. You can tell if the animal is happy or not by looking at their facial expression and how they behave. The animals that were performing didn’t seem to be enjoying. Their eyes were colorless, and they looked tired. The bird that was flying from one side of the stage to the other almost fell on the audience. Is it ethical to keep animals in zoos? There are many reasons for and against zoos, and there are many perspectives on this question, but in my opinion, animals should not be kept in zoos.

There are countless reasons why I strongly believe in this. First, from an animal rights perspective, humans do not have the right to capture and breed animals. What makes humans have more power over animals? We are all living things, and we stand on the same level. Second, animals can feel pressure and stress. Animals are living. They are not an object to look at. They should not be locked up in a small cage for people to stare at. According to KQED Education “some studies have shown that reintroduced animals have high mortality rates because they are poorly adapted and lack the skills needed to survive in the wild.” Some zoos also have entertainment, and they train animals to do tricks so they can entertain the audience. This may sound wonderful, but the reality is that if the animal doesn’t do the trick the right way, trainers slap and punch animals so they learn. I think this is barbarous. Imagine that you are the animal. What would it feel like to be hitten by humans, just because you didn’t do something correctly? What would it feel like to live under pressure and fear?

On the other hand, zoos keep animals safe. They feed animals and give them spaces to live without worrying about predators and winter season. Visitors also learn more about animals at zoos, because they educate people. However, I don’t think zoos actually educate people. According to the research done by PeTA, visitors usually stay at an animal for a few minutes, and they enjoy the time with the animal, rather than getting an education about the animal. Animals in zoos are easier to get various kinds of diseases because there are thousands of people around the animal every day. Zoos also say that they save the endangered animals, but all they really care about is how much crowd the animal draws. Also, removing a certain species from the ecosystem can destroy the whole ecosystem. For example, the Bornean orangutan is not native to Singapore, but Singapore zoo has many Bornean orangutans. I solidly believe that national parks save all kinds of endangered animals in a less cruel way. All though they don’t have any shows or some sort of entertainment, people still visit national parks.

For these reasons, keeping animals in zoos is an unacceptable thing. The zookeepers are not caring enough about animals. They are not robots, they have feelings. This is what zoos should really start to care about. 

Works Cited

1. Bekoff, M. (2009). Should zoos exist? A perspective from animal rights. Journal of Social Issues, 65(3), 569-585.
2. Birke, L. (2017). Ethical concerns about zoos. In P. Boyle & P. Simmonds (Eds.), Ethical Issues in Tourism (pp. 119-131). Channel View Publications.
3. Buchholz, R. (2018). Ethics and animals: An introduction (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.
4. Cusack, J. J., Dickman, C. R., & Rowcliffe, J. M. (2017). Wildlife forensics: Methods and applications. Springer.
5. Dolphin, K. (2018). Zoos: A contested terrain for human-wildlife relationships. Routledge.
6. KQED Education. (2017). Should we keep animals in zoos? https://www.kqed.org/education/453676/should-we-keep-animals-in-zoos
7. PeTA. (n.d.). Zoos and aquariums. https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/zoos-aquariums/
8. Ross, L., & Caro, T. (2020). How do visitors affect captive animal welfare? The importance of understanding human-animal interactions. Animal Welfare, 29(2), 155-163.
9. Singh, M., & Singh, B. (2019). The ethics of zoos: Should we be keeping wild animals in captivity? International Journal of Ethics Education, 4(2), 119-129.
10. Thompson, P. B. (2018). The ethics of captivity. Oxford University Press.