List of Pros and Cons of Zoos

Zoos are present all over the world, it is a great way for people to learn about wild animals without having to put themselves in danger, or travel to other parts of the world. People want to admire these animals and the power of nature itself, but many are not aware of the circumstances and lives that caged animals lead.

People should questions themselves about how these animals live inside the zoo. Would they have a better life in the wild? Is the zoo preserving the existence of this species? The thing is, these issues are directly related to environmental problems. Although most people who visit the zoo don’t think about these issues, other people do, and there are incredibly heated debates about this subject pretty much everywhere – provided we look for these debates.

Pros of Zoos

1. As far as animal rights go, zoos play a crucial role. It is well debated that animals have no rights in zoos, but we need to look at things from another point of view. If we look at how animals are being hunted right now, we can see how zoos are great for them. Animals are being hunted down for a lot of reasons, including their fur, ivory, some medical benefits (that aren’t proven), and sometimes even for their meat. This is terrible, and zoos can act as safe havens for these animals.

2. Animals have been subjected to cruel treatment in the past when they were in zoos. This has changed, however, because people actually knew about it and noticed it, and it damaged the reputation of zoos itself and threatened their business. They realized this and their treatment towards animals has been continuously improving over time. In fact, animals are started to get the treatment of kings when they are in zoos, all because they are the livelihood of the business. Moreover, the few zoos that mistreated animals have been caught, and are being targeted for these actions.

3. When it comes to education, zoos are also playing a very important role. School children are curious about animals and see them everywhere in their daily lives, and an opportunity to go to the zoo and see them for real is amazing for them. With this opportunity, they enjoy learning about animals and endangered species. Zoos have added signs to most places where animals are located in order to inform people about them too, including their natural habitat, how many there still are in the world, what they eat, and so on. Not only school children, but pretty much everyone can get informed about animals at zoos, as they start to raise awareness towards important issues regarding animals.

4. Finally, zoos are crucial to protect endangered species. As mentioned before, animals are being hunted down pretty much for existing, and zoos are keeping them safe against hunters and other types of malicious people. Zoos aren’t paradise, obviously, but they do act as a safe haven for these hunted animals.

List of Cons of Zoos

1. Capturing animals is cruel, period. Animals have their own rights, and they have their own lives in the wild. Capturing them destroys their routines and their way of life. For example elephants travel long distances in the wild in large groups that is their way of life. When elephants are in a zoo, they can’t travel long distances, in fact, the amount they can move can barely be named as worthy of travel.

2. Moreover, animals that are confined to the zoo suffer from negative psychological effects due to the confinement. It doesn’t really matter how good the facilities of the zoo are, or how much space the animal has for itself, it will still not be comparable in any way to the freedom they would have in the wild.

3. Furthermore, animals that are born in zoos and confined to their boundaries their whole life never get to see their natural habitat, and never get to live life like they should be living it. This is something that can be noticed by their abnormal behavior, since they’re not where they should be – it is not natural for them. If these animals ever get released to the wild for any reason, they will have an extremely difficult time adapting to their natural habitat, because they had absolutely no former experience of it. They were taken care of all their lives, and now have to provide for themselves, something they are not used to.

4. Regarding education in zoos, although they do provide a lot of it, most of us go to the zoo as a way to spend time and for recreational purposes. No one really goes visit the zoo with the same mentality people visit the museum with. Moreover, some visitors actually don’t care about the well-being of animals, and many of them actually abuse them by throwing them objects, teasing them, yelling at them, and so on. This kind of behavior has an extremely negative effect on animals, and it can often result in psychological damage to animals, and sometimes it can even prove to be fatal. Animals caged in zoos aren’t able to exhibit their natural behavior as they should, and teasing them will greatly damage their self-confidence and their comfort in the zoo itself.