Zoos

Pay To view Animals Held Captive For human Amusement

Over 700 million people visit zoos and aquariums each year.

Zoos allow humans to come into close contact with an extensive variety of captive beings who are forced to exist in artificial habitats that resemble human constructs rather than natural environments. Zoo visitors get to view animals on display who are native to all parts of the world without risking bodily harm, thanks to barriers like fences, cages, and glass windows that render the animals' behavior to be constrained and their enclosures to be inescapable.

Zoos claim to keep animals for conservation purposes, but the majority of species held at zoos are not threatened or endangered. It’s Also an extremely rare occurrence for a zoo to introduce animals from a nearly extinct species back into the wild.

Instead of seeing animals behave as free beings in the natural world, zoo visitors view animals in environments that deprive them of space, choice, privacy, expressing natural behaviors, and self-actualization. We have enormous options for learning about all kinds of species without even having to leave our homes and without animals being forced to leave their homes.

Some Argue that zoos are important for developing and maintaining understanding and empathy towards those we share the planet with.

But if zoo visitors aren't moved by dejected animals languishing in heartless prison-like-circumstances then why would they genuinely care about the other species' members living wild and free, whether threatened by human activity or not? Zoos desensitize people to animal use, domination, and torture.

"Visitor-based conservation uses behavior-change models to inspire and empower visitors to change their behaviours in ways that will help to protect wildlife or reduce human-caused threats to animals. Considering the significant number of people who visit zoos, small behavior changes have the potential to make a significant impact."

Jenny Gray, Author of Zoo Ethics: The Challenges Of Compassionate Conservation

"…Knowledge of pro-conservation behavior is a long way from being an active conservationist. In our experience, we estimate that 99% of the visitors who come to our parks come for an enjoyable day out, but as little as 1% get newly enthusiastic about conservation. However, that doesn’t mean 1% become actively involved. Besides, if they do it’s having no effect given the state of wildlife depopulation and deforestation around the world. In our view, keeping hundreds of thousands of animals in captivity, just so that a minuscule percentage of people might become active conservationists, is far too high a price to pay."

Damian Aspinall, Conservationist

An artist at a South Dakota zoo paints a nature-inspired setting along the walls inside of a small building that will soon house some animals under the guise of education and conservation-inspired behavior change for the public. No matter how pretty and artistic the painting around the wall is, the art will serve no benefit to the animals kept captive inside under the fluorescent lights.

When humans restrict a being’s ability to act to fulfill their preferences, we impact their autonomy and we fail to treat them with respect.

— Tom Regan

zoos keep capable animals in a state of everlasting dependency and vulnerability as they primarily rely on their captors for essentials like food, water, and the care of their offspring. zoos deprive individuals of the ability to choose their own mates, maintain social bonds (including children), and to not be killed off as “surplus” animals.

Protecting Animals From The Harms Of Living In The Wild Doesn’t Inherently Mean A Good And worthwhile Life

Animals kept in zoos are often granted protection from predation, starvation, injuries, and displacement. When animals in zoos succumb to sickness and injuries they oftentimes have the opportunity to be treated with veterinary care that they wouldn’t have benefited from in the wild. However, these captive animals endure tragic harms that wouldn’t curse them in the wild, such as depression, boredom, lack of privacy, chronic stress, and neurotic issues such as repetitive pacing, swaying, bar biting, licking, escape searching, and even self harm. Zoos can’t afford animals an experience for true physical and mental well-being.
Living beings should be granted the right to lead their lives as they prefer and be who they want to be, rather than living as suppressed and diminished versions of themselves to satisfy the entertainment desires of the public and the profit motives of the facilities who “own” them.

Gorillas at the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas and Toronto Zoo in Canada were documented by Unparalleled Suffering repeatedly consuming their vomit and then throwing it up over and over again—a clear sign of extreme distress and mental anguish.

zoos reinforce the false notion that other animals exist as living property who are here as means for our own ends—and that we may do as we please with their lives while acting as We Have an ability and moral right to Own Them.

Like all animals, we wish for autonomy. We wish to be with our own and to explore our world. We flee from harm and we seek shelter. We desire to build our lives and make our own way. We hate forced confinement and we succumb to despair if we have no prospect of freedom.

— Jo-Anne McArthur

Zoos doom animals to a life where it’s implausible for them to thrive.

Unparalleled Suffering documented this polar bear at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Wisconsin pacing back and forth over and over again while always licking the same small section of the glass, bottom to top, before turning around and repeating the same repetitive short walk. This is a cruel and torturous life for a so-called zoo “ambassador.” Zoos use the grossly exaggerated claim that people who view animals at zoos will want to save their habitats in the wild; zoo visitors seldom seem to feel concerned and want to save the blatantly unwell individuals displayed right in front of their eyes.

is it morally sound to let animals suffer and be unfree so that humans’ curiosity can be satisfied?

Zoos bring human obnoxiousness to the front lines of animals’ lives.

Farmed animals at zoos…why are they there?

Some zoos keep farmed animals as part of their animal collection, but none of these species are natural or facing extinction—and they are all bred by humans to eventually be killed for products we don’t even need.

Animal agriculture is one of the leading drivers for habitat destruction, soil erosion, ocean warming and dead zones, water contamination, fresh water scarcity, carbon and methane emissions, plastic pollution, world hunger, trapping and hunting of wildlife, biodiversity loss, and species extinctions. So why are zoos promoting the use and destruction of so-called “livestock” and why are zoos primarily serving animal-exploitation-based products at their ‘pro-conservation’ facilities? Zoos are serving the dead bodies of some of the very same species they have on display.

The Calgary Zoo food menu seen above is primarily animal-based aside from a Veggie Burger and a Vegan Beyond Sausage sandwich, which both happen to be the two most costly options. All around the zoo there are animal information displays, such as the lion and bighorn sheep above, which state that livestock production is a significant threat to the survival of their species.