To believe that zoos are unethical and should be abolished?

[YourHonestOchreBeaker]

Keeping animals in cages for human entertainment seems cruel, no matter how ‘nice’ the enclosures are. AIBU to think that zoos have no place in a modern society?

Yes, I was going to ask how the conservation work should be paid for, given that nobody wants to pay even enough tax for health and education anyway and charitable donations are just a drop in the ocean.

I agree with most posters- zoos and aquariums vary a lot but some are excellent conservation centres. I also think that visiting them an encourage people into wildlife tourism in later life which again while variable can fund huge amounts of conservation. I was in Tonga whale watching a few years ago and there were surveyors there doing a study trying to show the value to the island of this type of tourism and the value to them of live whales versus allowing Japanese whalers in their waters. Many poor countries benefit hugely from having protected wildlife areas, whether marine or land, and tourists often pay an explicit fee towards this. So i think zoos and aquariums can play a big role in this, and the best ones are actively benefiting animal welfare

I agree - I hate zoos! Been once never again - Shut in tiny cages for our amusement and supposed learning about them - I can learn about them through books, internet etc - they should be abolished

I remember the polar bear at Bristol Zoo. Must have been the 80s as I went as a kid. I’ve never forgotten it, it was awful. Just pacing and swaying its head from side to side, clearly disturbed. And humans put it there and left it there and allowed people to watch it like that for many years. I don’t go to zoos.

I accept the argument that many zoos do laudable conservation work. However, I think the whole concept of zoos is outdated and rooted in a dynamic of human dominion over other animals. It encourages a hierarchy and the idea that it is ok to collect animals whose natural habitat would be scattered across the globe into one artificial place, where it can never mimic the original conditions, and that it is ok to sell tickets to observe this falsity. I also think the existence of respectable zoos also encourages smaller more touristy examples (such as Folly Farm in west Wales) which have an odd assortment of “attractions” and have no business existing. They’re not far above circuses.

So, conservation work, yeah, crack on, in private, in species specific specialisms, not animals all heaped together on one unnatural place. Zoos in general, nope.

@XenoBitch

Bristol zoo has closed, they have a new place beyond the m5 with more land

I have never liked zoos. Tigers pacing endlessly up and down, large birds in cages so small they can't actually fly, children laughing at primates bored out of their minds. I've found zoos to be hugely depressing places. As for pandas.......

I thought that zoos had to cull some animals to keep the numbers down? That put me off a bit.

City zoos yes absolutely especially ones that are theme parks like chessington

wildlife parks that primarily are working on conservation no, you may not see the animals you are hoping to see, there may not be rides and other entertainment which is not needed

Some animals would be entirely extinct without zoos now, so many, I’ve got Chester and London in mind, are mainly about conservation.

Yes, taking animals out of nature and putting them on public display in enclosures is unethical.

We should support conservation & rehabilitation in their natural habitats and in animal sanctuaries.

The majority of species held in captivity in zoos are not endangered species.

A lot of people don’t realise that zoos spend a very small percentage of their income on conservation (typically less than 5%) and that It was just a marketing tool dreamed up to increase zoos popularity and visitor numbers when they were dwindling back in the 70’s.

Zoos have put the Con into Conservation.

The car park at Chester zoo is bigger than the elephants enclosure. Says it all really.

People in the know do know that the 'education and conservation' elements of zoos are pretty paltry, and a smokescreen to be honest. Conservation of a species is much better done in their native habitat, in their native country as a proper community effort.
The only exception to that is possibly native British wild animal reintroductions - but they still shouldn't be in a 'zoo'. It's totally artificial to be surrounded by humans the whole time.

Zoos make quite a lot of money. It's about the money more than it's about education or conservation. They have to do 1, or both, of these things to get a license. That is the only reason they bother at all.

Very, very, very few animals are successfully reintroduced from UK to their country of origin. Transporting a troop of adolescent or adult apes/rhinos from the UK totally impossible to do without huge stresses to the animal. These efforts should take place in the actual country - not thousands of air miles away in a 'zoo'.

They're hugely important not just for conservation programmes and encouraging donations to preserve animals, but also reducing the amount of people going to their natural habitats to see them in the wild. If there were no zoos in the uk you can guarantee there would be an increase in tourism to see animals in their natural habitat causing disruption on a much larger scale.

I think they used to be. I remember seeing bears in zoos, polar bears, brown bears. Apparently, before my time anyway, they offered elephant rides.

In latter years they have turned it around though to support conservation, endangered species, awareness of palm oil, sustainability projects etc. I do support the zoos and I am a member of our local zoo, they won't be going anywhere and they need support. I also donated when they were closed during lockdown.

Agree op. Any guff about education is nonsense. You see zero natural behaviours. Just an animal gone insane.
I hate Birming Sea Life too. Absolutely hell hole for the animals.

Re. Monkey world, wasn't that the place where they moved a group of chimps into a beautiful new enclosure and they immediately found a way to escape through the roof? Doesn't matter how many tyres or how much food.you give them, they want freedom.

I am not keen on zoos but with the habitat of so many wild animals rapidly disappearing there will come a time when most of these animals only exist in zoos. Yes we should be preserving their habitat but the majority of people just don't give a shit.

Do you even know what zoos in the Uk do?

soubds like you are quite uninformed OP

Some species are only still here because of zoo programmes.

Species like Preswalski's horse only exist in the wild due to preservation in zoos.

I'm sure they would be just as, if not more, successfully bred in places other than a public zoo.

They can't because there just isn't the money for it without public viewing. Exotic animals are really expensive to keep and more expensive to breed.

Species that are down to really low numbers often won't recover in the wild. Mortality rates in the wild are too high, especially for species like rhino, where there's heavy pressure from poaching.

When was the last time you visited a zoo?
Animals aren't shut in tiny cages in the UK any more.

I'm a regular visitor to Doncaster Wildlife Park. Back in 2009 they rescued 13 malnourished lions that had been kept in tiny cages in a run down zoo in Romania. Last year they saved 4 lions from a zoo in war torn Ukraine.

The huge lion enclosures - note enclosures not cages enable the lions to roam freely.

The park is part of the breeding programme for Amur leopards, if which there are believed to be about 70 left in the wild. They are breeding the leopards with leopards from other zoos to increase the gene pool.

The park is huge. To see all the animals involves walking for several miles

Clearly, several posters have an agenda and don't want to believe that zoos have moved on from Victorian times. Maybe these posters should go to places like China and India and persuade the local population to stop killing these animals or destroying their habitat.

People have this idyllic picture of animals in the wild. However, only a tiny minority of animals in most species make it to adulthood. They die from starvation, predation, parasites, infections, or injuries. In zoos, they are protected from those factors.

Not only does nobody want to pay more tax, many of us can't afford to.