Is it cruel to keep animals in zoos?

Answer 1

In a way they are keeping them from the wild and making them be a show. But on the other hand these animals are endangered and breeding them helps keep the number of them up. And if they lived in a rainforest they could have been killed so they have saved there lives so there not cruel

Answer 2

It all depends on the zoo. Most zoos try (or at least claim) to treat their animals well. They try to give the animals enclosures that are similar to there natural environments.

Now it's also a matter of opinion because some people say that it is cruel to take put the animals in cages.

There have been some cases where animals at zoos have been abused, but luckily the abusers are usually punished.

Answer 3

I really cant speak on other peoples thougths but I think that zoos are a very smart place for the animals to be , because the need shelter , help , food and more like if they get sick they have the zookeepers to help them get well so no I don't think zoos are cruel .

Answer 4

Animal rights ü Animal rights or liberation is the basic idea that animal interests should be afforded at the same rate as the similar interests of human beings. ü Animal advocates all agree that animals should not be used as a means of entertainment, property, or research objects. ü Some zoologists say that animals in a zoo are less happy than animals in the wild. For example, a wolf that sleeps all day in a cage of the zoo is less happy than the wolf outside in the wild hungry wolf whose time is spent in hunting for food. Source- www.goodzoos.com/arezoos.htm paragraph 5. ü Animals do not like to be snatched from their environment and put into cages at zoos. ü Many animals are abused by the very zoo that pledges to care for them ü Some zoos are also known to have breaded animals for their profit and when they have more than enough animals they are also known to have sold them to hunting ranches or worse, kill their own animals. ü 1. Zoos are known to have supplied animals for use in experiments.

In 1990, a zoo research institute was party to experiments on primates and wallabies. The object of the research was to discover whether the breeding rates of the monkeys improved. In another experiment, fully conscious wallabies were decapitated. ü An experiment was carried out on marmoset monkeys in which their sense of smell was destroyed using surgical burning and chemical techniques. ü The same research institute has collaborated with companies such as ICI in tests on rats, involving the force feeding of chemicals used in plastics, dyes and explosives to find out about the effect on fertility. ü In 1992 the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) found that the Longleaf Safari Park and Woburn Wild Animal Park were supplying primates to Shamrock GB Limited, the UK's primary supplier of laboratory primates for scientific research. (c) ü Some zoos are also known to have supplied animals to an exotic meat industry. ü There was evidence to prove that zoos often let animals end up in zoos. In recent years animals from zoos have been supplied to circuses and dealers involved with circuses. A young sea lion called Orry, from a wildlife park in the Isle of Man, was found in France in the back of a lorry belonging to a travelling circus. Orry now lives in a UK zoo.

One zoo exhibits an elephant supplied by a circus animal trainer. The same zoo is alleged to have supplied a bear cub and snakes to a circus animal dealer in the 1980's. ü Zoos have sent animals to appalling conditions and have been left to die. ü In 1993 a zoo and theme park sold its two polar bears to Zagreb Zoo in Croatia, just 30 miles from the war zone. ü In 1989 two polar bears, Pipiluk and Moesha, were moved from a zoo to Katowice Zoo in Poland. A visitor who saw the bears there said that the conditions were "deplorable and inadequate". ü In 1993 a zoo disposed of an orang-utan to a zoo in Tenerife. No-one from the UK zoo visited Tenerife to inspect conditions there. The orang-utan (pictured), whose name was Jimmy James, was shipped out unaccompanied. A CAPS investigation team visited him at his new home and were appalled and sickened at the conditions in which he and the other zoo animals were living. Jimmy James survived alone in his cage for four years until his death. ü A very good site : en.allexperts.com/q/Animal-Rights-2716/animal-cruelty-zoos.htm ü It has been observed that animals usually die pre-maturely in zoo cages. ü Surplus animals have been destroyed or sold. ü In 1992 a CAPS investigation team found two Goeldi's marmoset monkeys in a pet shop. The monkeys had been supplied to the pet shop by a zoo. Goeldi's marmosets are one of the world's rarest primate species. ü Animals still come from the wild. They have anyways been taken for entertainment from their habitats. ü There is a lack of genetic diversity in captive bred animals.

It is believed that in the UK this reduced gene pool has led to some young, for example snow leopard cubs, being bred with congenital deformities. So there is no point in keeping animals in the zoo for breeding purposes. ü Most zoos collect 'crowd pullers'.

Most zoo collections are comprised of large charismatic species, such as giraffes, elephants, tigers etc. These animals are 'crowd pullers', and are kept in captivity for the profit of zoos themselves and not for their care. ü REFERENCES:

a: 'Law Relating to Animals', S. Brooman/Dr. D. Legge

b: 'Law Relating to Animals', S. Brooman/Dr. D. Legge

c: BUAV press release August 1992

d: Stefan Ormrod 'Zoo Biz' 1994

e: Zoo Inquiry, WSPA/BFF

Answer 5

I personally believe that they can be and at other times they arent. Like its okay to have animals in there for like health, food or shelter benifts for them, but Just to have them as a side show or just something to look at is wrong. Even though this is an opinionated question I believe that the question will forever remain unanswered. Because we being different people believe different things.

Answer 6

Well, personally, I think that they are not cruel in certain countries but they can be in others. Some zoos breed endangered animals and release them back into the wild, but some zoos use animals for entertainment purposes, which leads to them getting more money.

Answer 7

Yes infact there are some horrid zoos that have a lot of cruelty towards the animals

Answer 8

i reckon no because it is stupid and sycastically dum

Answer 9

It depends on who you ask.