Would people accept other humans being locked in cages for entertainment or even profitable purposes? The topic of zoos and whether they should remain open or not is constantly brought up as a result of various incidents yet has never been brought to a conclusion. Many think captivity has many different positive outcomes like saving endangered species and educating guests at the same time it encourages the people that attend the institution to appreciate the wildlife, while others believe animals in zoos only experience different forms of suffering, such as hunger, maltreatment and even depression. 

Animals’ health and overall wellbeing is put at risk when going through changes moving from their natural habitat to a confined space where they’ll spend not only their entire day, but the rest of life being looked at. The enjoyment people get from visiting zoos is not equal to the amount of torment animals go through. While zoos can be educational and can save animals from going extinct, they do more harm than good to the animals. Some of the animals are killed or traded, develop a mental illness and are sometimes even not fed properly.

“Zoochosis” is a term that describes an animal’s abnormal behavior under captivity. They are psychological and repetitive behaviors that includes constant licking, aggression, vomiting, anxious tics. None of these behaviors have ever been seen in animals that are free in the wild, proving that zoos cannot and will not ever be beneficial for the animals. The fact that a word like this exists exemplifies that this is a problem faced in today’s society (Garlow, 2014).  

People forget that animals face stress just like humans do and that institutions like zoos only worsen their experience. One of the many sources of stress animals develop after being caged is mental illness. Studies have shown that many big events including the loss of a partner, loss of freedom, trauma or abuse can lead to signs of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. The effects of this can be seen in birds who constantly pluck their own feathers (Dasgupta, 2015) and in the inactivity of pigs as well as other animals (Morgan, 2007). All of this leads to slow development, low reproduction, and in worst cases even death. Such events cause severe damage to animals’ genes (Dasgupta, 2015), leading to complications in future offspring. 

Animals are taken out of their natural habitat to be placed in a confined space where they will spend the rest of their days in and people expect it not to have a big impact on them. Animals’ movements are restricted therefore they don’t exercise as much as they should, they don’t have the privacy they normally would and are not even fed properly because what is found in the wild cannot be reproduced by man. All of this leads back to the stress mentioned above. An increase of aggression has been shown in animals with smaller cages rather than bigger areas to live in. This has been observed in buffalo, turkeys, and gazelles, showing that this is a problem that affects a wide variety of species. With the aggression and stress these animals are going through, growth rate is affected along with many other things including the struggles with mental illness that were previously mentioned. With the rate of growth decreasing, the rate of reproduction also decreases. This is most concerning to zookeepers interested in saving endangered species (Morgan, 2007). Just as humans would not survive if they were taken away from planet Earth, animals are meant to stay in their natural habitats not only because of the space available for them, but also because of the food provided, the weather, the lighting, the other animals around them and many more, without it they are not able to survive. That being said, zookeepers try recreating the animals’ natural habitat but sadly fail due to the difficulty of this endeavor and the budget they have, once again causing stress and developmental problems. 

Another reasons zoos are not doing the best possible for their animals is the low budget they have to actually spend on the various species that are in their care.  Zoos should not be a place to profit from, if there is money made from the numerous amount of people that visit these places, it should be used to better the wellbeing of the animals. To support this, a study done by the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) organization has shown that all the funds made from the visitations are rarely used to enhance animals’ health; instead, most of the profit goes towards decorations, landscaping, and gift shops and refreshments in an effort to attract more visitors in order to make more money for the staff (Zoos: Pitiful Prisons). Helping animals should be a voluntary action and something people do for their own good instead of expecting something in return. 

Overall, zoos have more interest in attracting guests as opposed to actually helping the animals. Another major cause of stress in animals is the forced proximity to humans; something that they are typically not used to. Seeing an animal locked in a cage may give visitors the idea that it is okay to act a certain way around them causing the animals stress. If an animal is asleep or inactive, visitors may try to provoke or ‘excite’ an animal also causing them stress. This forced encounter causes animals to change their behaviors and can lead to harmful accidents due to their strength or size (Fernandez, Tamborski, Pickens, & Timberlake, 2009). Animals end up paying a higher price than the people who pay to be entertained by them. In a zoo in Dallas, a gorilla named Jabari tried escaping the zoo by jumping and climbing over walls and electric wires and ended up being shot by a police officer. It was revealed later that teenagers were scaring the primate by throwing rocks at him. Another example of the high price animals are paying for our entertainment was the death of two polar bears, one of which was pregnant with two cubs, that died in a Saint Louis zoo after ingesting objects thrown at their exhibit. This species is widely known to be endangered and in a short period four of these animals were lost, when a zoos main purpose is supposedly to protect species from dying out (Zoos: Pitiful Prisons). 

The biggest example and most widely known example of animals that end up being killed because of human perturbation is the famous Harambe. Harambe was a seventeen year-old gorilla who was shot after a three year-old managed to get inside of his exhibit (Park & Yan, 2016). There have been multiple videos showing the gorilla holding and dragging the child through the water. What was not taken into consideration is that he might have been trying to help but his strength is so big that he would not notice whether he was hurting the child. Tranquilizers were not an option because it takes several minutes to have its effect and in those few minutes the child could have been injured or even killed. Zoos have got to make a better and more efficient plan in case an accident like this takes place, animals cannot be suffering and paying the cost of being in a zoo if it was clearly something they did not have a choice about. Another animal in captivity who was supposedly going extinct, whose protection was supposed to be the job of the zoo, died in their hands.

The zoological parks care more for the money they make rather than their animals. Big and popular zoos around the world trade or even sell animals that typically don’t attract visitors or species don’t grow to look the way the zoo was expecting. Animals who are born out in the wild in freedom are taken into a zoo where they can be sold if unwanted. Zoo babies are big crowd pleasers, but once they grow they ‘lose their charm’ on audiences and zoos will sell, trade and even loan the animals. A chimpanzee named Edith drew a lot of attention when she was born, but after her third birthday she was taken away from her family at the Saint Louis Zoo and passed around to five different facilities, finally ending up in a zoo in Texas. An undercover investigation later discovered and revealed that she had been thrown in a concrete pit, was hairless due to stress, and was fed rotten dog food (Zoos: Pitiful Prisons). 

Zoos claim that the main purpose for their existence is to save endangered species from going extinct yet the topics above all have proven that what they are doing is not working. In addition to the forced proximity to humans; the confined spaces they are locked in, the food they are fed, and they stress they endure because of all of this contribute to the injustice animals and captivity constantly face. As previously stated, zoos do the unimaginable; trading the animals based on their popularity and their potential for profitability. Knowing this, why do people continue to accept the argument that zoos are for a species protection, rehabilitation, or well-being?

Various species of animals are endangered yet it was shown in a research that zoos prefer to mate the smaller species more often than the bigger due to the lower price ones (Ward, Mosberger, Kistler, & Fischer, 1998). A zoo is supposedly used to maintain their endangered animals healthy and create a backup population to integrate in the wild in case the species go extinct or to save species that are on the verge of going extinct. By giving preference and mainly focusing on mating the smaller animals, larger species do not get the chance to properly procreate therefore their population who is already at risk may not increase their numbers. Bigger animals are the ones visitors are most attracted to, and not having not as many of them the zoo could potentially not profit; an irony because they are trying to save money by breeding the smaller animals but at the same time are raising money from the people visiting the institution. It is also an injustice to the large species of animals who were put in there without acknowledgement and their own kind is slowly dying out without the proper care they need. 

Life of these large creatures are often taken away in a blink of an eye. A zoo in Denmark, short after taking the life of an 18-month-old giraffe named Marius, has made an even bigger impact by killing two parent lions and their cubs to lead space to a new lion that was going to be introduced into the zoo. It was mentioned that the cubs were killed because the male lion could have preyed on them, and he would try to breed with the female lion who were his offspring, leading to genetic problems to the next generation of offspring. In this occasion, trading or selling these animals to another zoo would have been a better choice for these unfortunate animals. After investigations, the giraffe, Marius, who was shot in the head, was dissected in front of a crowd of people with people of all ages before being thrown into the lions’ cage, where the four innocent creatures were placed in at that time (Bilefsky, 2014). 

Animal life in zoo is being shortened not only due to the stress animals are going through but because of these cruel and unthoughtful acts zookeepers and owners decide to take. Elephants, are one of the animals who suffer the most in the process of relocation. Scientists have begged the employers of the facility to minimize the number of them, so they can have as much space as possible to exercise and not become obese, one of the biggest reasons these animals die in zoos, they beg to move them around as little as possible because it gives them a possible fatal stress and they ask allow breeding only in zoos successful in this area. Unfortunately, many of these requests are not taken into consideration and once again, the animal pays the price. It is often said that zoos are consumers and not actual producers of these animals (Dean, 2008).

An often talked about and one of the few positive aspects, of having such an establishment as a zoo is the education they provide to the hundreds of visitors and researchers they receive daily. Adults and children often watch TV shows, documentaries, pictures of these wild animals yet have very few opportunities to see these creatures in person. Zoos prove to their public that these animals are real and that extinction is also indeed real. Boards and signs are placed in front of each exhibit giving the basic information of the animal, what it eats, special care they need and how the audience should behave around them. Seeing these beautiful animals several feet away from you gives a greater appreciation to the wildlife and may interest many to help to conserve these rare animals very much needed in Earth. Researchers can get a close look of the animals and can learn exactly what they need to live a long and healthy life and can eventually share this information with the rest of the world. Information they collect include things such as the ecosystems they need to properly live in, how they react with humans around them, the dosage of anesthetics needed in case of a surgery, their life cycles, and needs for transporting them (Hone, 2014). Many of which were included in this paper.  

Although their suffering may not be extremely evident, it may be due to the fact that they are not able to communicate verbally. The lack of verbal communication does not express their lack of happiness. Their dissatisfaction is exemplified in nonverbal cues such as an increase in levels of aggression, attempting to flee from the hostile environment and repetitive behaviors such as animals constantly plucking their own feather or licking their paws.

An online website, giving guide to make healthy and conscious choices to live a healthy life and to appreciate and respect planet Earth has clearly stated in easy words what zoos are doing to the animals:   

What sort of life have we provided for zoo animals? We cycle them through ill-advised breeding practices for the success of the individual zoo, make them “fast” multiple days a week (the friendly way zoologists phrase “starvation due to lack of desiring to put funds into feeding rather than entertainment purposes”), expect them to give healthy young, only so their young can be taken away from them, shipped across the country so that they too can be stressed, bred, and underfed. (Garlow, 2014)

Unfortunately, nothing can be done for the various species until there is a full restructure in the laws, requirements of zoos, and animal rights. Things are placed on Earth for a reason and taking these things away from or trying to move its locations will disintegrate the whole thing.  Animals originate from mountains, deserts, lakes and oceans, places typically not much populated by humans where they could live a long, free and healthy life. Humans invade their space, taking these animals away from their natural habitat to place them somewhere else where they will suffer in many different aspects. 

The tradeoff between education and appreciation as well as the negative outcomes over animals is unbalanced. Even though positive evidence is shown, it does not justify animals in captivity since it has a much stronger impact on their lives instead of humans. The main purpose of zoos is to save these endangered species from going extinct and it has been show that what they are doing is the exact opposite. Animals get ill, do not reproduce healthy offspring and end up dying from these poor environment zoos provide to them to live in. Zoological parks, in other words, end up contributing to the ill-being and extinction of these species. Is it worth sacrifice wild animals’ lives in order for us to have a wealthier one? Preference should not be given to humans’ amusement and education over the health of animals. Studies illustrate both sides to this argument but the negative outcomes prevail in this matter. 
