Zoos

Con 1: Zoos don’t educate the public enough to justify keeping animals captive.

A review published in Animal Studies Repository concluded that “to date there is no compelling or even particularly suggestive evidence for the claim that zoos and aquariums promote attitude change, education, and interest in conservation in visitors.” Even a study widely cited to justify the argument that zoos educate the public stated that “there was no overall statistically significant change in understanding [of ecological concepts] seen,” because visitors know a lot about ecology before going to the zoo. [26][27]

TV shows such as Planet Earth bring wild animals into living rooms, allowing people to see the animals in their natural habitats without causing harm to animals such as the endangered snow leopard. Romesh Ranganathan, a British comedian, stated, “It still slightly surprises me that anybody thinks that we should have zoos at all. The animals always look miserable in captivity.…The idea that kids only get excited about things they can see in the flesh is ridiculous. My kids are obsessed with dinosaurs that no longer exist, and Skylanders, which have never existed.” [28]

Con 2: Zoos are detrimental to animals’ physical health.

A study of 35 species of carnivores, including brown bears, cheetahs, and lions, found that zoo enclosures were too small for the animals to carry out their normal routines, which led to problems such as pacing and increased infant deaths. Polar bears, for example, had an infant mortality rate of 65% due to small enclosures. [29]

About 70% of adult male gorillas in North America have heart disease, the leading cause of death among gorillas in captivity, although the condition is almost completely absent in the wild. Other great apes have similar health problems in captivity. [4]

Captive elephants live about half as long as wild elephants: 18.9 years versus 41.7 years for Asian elephants and 16.9 years versus 35.8 years for African elephants. Of 77 elephants in 13 zoos, 71 were overweight and spent 83% of their time indoors, contributing to early death. [30]

Con 3: Zoo confinement is psychologically damaging to animals.

Animal behaviorists often see zoo animals suffering from problems not seen in the wild, such as clinical depression in clouded leopards and gibbons, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in brown bears, and anxiety in giraffes. The animals experience these issues due to smaller enclosures, changes in diet and activities, and the introduction of things not seen in the wild, such as medical exams and people with cameras. The Toledo Zoo in Ohio ran a psychiatric program in which a gorilla with premenstrual depression was prescribed Prozac. To ease them into new habitats, an agitated tiger was given Valium, and anxious zebras and wildebeests were given Haldol. [31][32][33]

A study of captive chimpanzees found that “abnormal behaviour is endemic in the population” and includes behaviors such as eating feces, twitching, rocking back and forth, plucking hair, pacing, vomiting, and self-mutilation. The study concluded that the cause of such behavior could be mental health issues. [34]

About 24% of captive orcas have “major” to “extreme” tooth wear, and 60% had tooth fractures as a result of stress-induced teeth grinding. As a result of the 2013 documentary Blackfish, which exposed the psychological damage done to orcas by SeaWorld, California outlawed captive orca breeding. [35][36][36]