Jack Sullivan at Commonwealth Magazine’s excellent Daily Download asks:
But the bigger question is why do we keep animals in a manufactured habitat for visitors to gawk at? The question becomes even more central when, looking at depleted public funds, the money needed to care for and maintain the zoos is becoming tighter and tighter. In Massachusetts, the House offered a slight increase over last year’s budget for the operations of the Franklin Park and Stoneham zoos while the Senate looked to cut it by nearly 25 percent. It wasn’t that long ago that officials at Franklin Park said they may be forced to euthanize animals because of budget cuts.
Perhaps zoos should go the way of bear baiting and dog fighting, banned in the distant past, dog racing, banned in the recent past, cruel farm animal practices, which may be banned in Massachusetts after the next election, and animal experimentation, which is under ever-increasing scrutiny.
As entertainment, it is hard to justify zoos. They have educational value, but it comes at a cost. In an age of television and the Internet people can acquire a great deal of knowledge without direct observation. Refuges for endangered creatures is perhaps their strongest claim to utility, but few zoos actually provide that service.
Last time I went to one, back in the 90’s, I left with a very sad feelings. Poor creatures, stuck in cages. Refuges for endangered species, yeah. Zoos? Not my thing.
Along these lines, there was a program yesterday “On Point” with Tom Ashbrook on WBUR you may want to listen to. Animal Rights And The ‘Humane Economy’
I’m sympathetic to anti-zoo arguments, and Blackfish has affected my view of all captivity.
But as a parent, I don’t see how the Internet or TV can replace the experience of a lion roaring at my child (behind some thick glass). The sense of wonder and awe that generates, and the respect for the beast — I think we might need it.
Steel and concrete cages are just depressing, but a zoo done intelligently and with care can be a comfortable place for an animal. Remember, some species survive today only because there are some in zoos.
There is no way to keep a cetacean captive in a healthy way. They have too broad a natural range, and an intelligence bordering on sentience. It’s like keeping a person in a closet. That said….I agree that zoos represent a visceral and tangible way to connect with nature, particularly in an urban environment. Just because it’s hard to do right is no reason to ban it all together.
If Massachusetts taxpayers are partially funding our zoos, I want them to be fully humane and truly educational along the lines sabutai described.
Zoo animals suffer. I believe this to be true.
But, in doing so, they capture the imagination and love and respect and support of thousands of children. Some will grow up to be postmen and waiters and clerks and engineers and actresses and will, at best, provide public support for environmental causes. A few will grow up to be veterinarians and biologists and forestry techs and Secretaries of the Interior, working every day to protect the health and well being of those zoo animals entire species.
I’m not much of a fan of zoos, but I do think that zoos help result in a greater public desire to protect our flora and fauna. I think it’s a hell of an individual life of sacrifice for the good of the species.
I did find that highways around the zoo troubling, I do remember as a kid how much I enjoyed going to the zoo.
We just had this conversation at the dinner table, yesterday, overwhelmingly the kids has thought that taking animals out of their natural habitat is cruel. I agree.
Unless the zoo or probably more likely an aquarium helps injured animals or sea life and brings them back in the wild or care for animals that due to injury cannot go back into the wild then they should close.
Educational opportunities in environments where animals are cared for and placed back into habitat will continue should to exist. Barnum and Baily circus just ended the use of Elephants due to consumers. So it’s time.
Animals that don’t take to zoos well shouldn’t be kept in zoos, or at least zoos should have to radically change the way those animals are kept and the access the public has to them.
But I generally agree with Stomv’s comments above — zoos serve an important role in inspiring society to love and respect animals, and zoos should be 100% dedicated to that mission.
As a society, we have a duty to ensure that zoos are humane, and that means they have to be properly funded, with skilled employees and good managers who think about the animals and safety first.
There should of course be strict humanitarian rules.
are tremendous. Unfortunately the individual animals are involuntary ambassadors for their species, but by demystifying these creatures (and live viewing is important) they are saving animals in the wild by blunting the first reactions humans often have to kill what we don’t understand.
When I’m cleaning my yard and one of the sticks starts to move because it’s a snake, I know just to relocate it farther in the woods instead of killing it.