Throughout the years of making and abolishing laws in the United States on multiple different subjects, there is only one law that pertains to the care, treatment, and movement of animals. The federal law is called the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and was put to action in 1966. Along with the AWA is a code of federal regulation and the act and regulations are “enforced by USDA, APHIS, Animal Care” (“Animal Welfare Act”). These acts have been modified and added to adjust to the feelings and protests of animal lovers or the people that believe in the free will for all living creatures. There are different types of captivity for animals that have opposing views and reasons for captivity, for example, zoos, sanctuaries, and animal amusement parks, but to better protect our own creatures, the laws and regulations need to be improved and revisited in order to do what is best by the animal’s rights and freedom. 

Zoos have been around since 3500 BC in Egypt (MacDonald). They have been used for different purposes and the definition of a zoo has changed throughout the centuries. In the earliest of the captivity of animals, they were taken from the wild and placed in cages and from there were used for the entertainment of the ruler or for “intimidation of enemies” to show the “wealth and power” of the ruler or country (MacDonald). 1793 was the creation of the “first modern zoo” and the zoo did not benefit in any other way but for the enlightenment of the viewers (MacDonald). In other words, zoos did not have an admission fee for those looking to gain knowledge of the animals, but making the admission free does not make what they are doing to the animals right by any means.

The progression of zoos over time has led further away from the education of the viewers and more to how much money can be profited by showing off the animals in the cages and teaching them tricks for food. The animals that are captured range from birds and monkeys to tigers and penguins. Some of these animals are on their way to endangerment and others are close to extinction. Zoos and other sources believe they are in fact helping the animals reproduce and gain in numbers. Cindy Dohner said that “doubling the number of captive wolves to 400 in zoos across the country is the only way to save red wolves” (Fears). However, the ultimate reason in the first place for the endangerment of the wolves is because of hunters overkilling and not from natural selection or a disaster. If an animal is endangered and the US government wants to protect its animals, they need to first look at the true reason for the animals becoming endangered before capturing them. Therefore, the laws with killing the animals should change instead of the animals being forced to give up their home they know to live in a cage or a specific area fenced off for them. 

Zoos have to have veterinarians as part of the zoo’s regulations.  According to Robinson, the veterinarian at San Diego Zoo for ten years, believes that zoos are for the good that “zoos and zoo people can go much further than their individual efforts could in contributing to wildlife conservation” (Robinson, 277). To argue along with Robinson, Bixler, Joseph, and Searles believe that zoos are going in the right direction by incorporating an education program offered for volunteers and docents allowing them to interact with the captive animals. (Bixler). Having an education program in the zoos sounds good, however, the viewers are seeing and learning how animals in a caged in environment, possibly since birth, are behaving. Therefore, the animals are not going to act the same way they would in the wild with no boundaries, making the education not the same. To truly be able to understand an animal would mean to observe them in their natural habitat and not obstruct their growth and ways of life (“Things We Need”).

According to the Animals Australia, there are “things we need to stop telling ourselves about animals in zoos” (“Things we need”). The fact that zoos are only there to be profited has already been established, but in this article the care of animals is brought to life in unpleasant facts. Over the years, “dozens of animals – including lions, tigers, monkeys and crocodiles – died from hunger or thirst at the Khan Younis Zoo”, in 2012, “a polar bear in Buenes Aires Zoo overheated and died,” and multiple cases of animals trying to escape have been shot and killed (“Things We Need”). These are not the only horrific cases of animals losing their life because of the lack of attention from humans and them not caring for them or our nature enough. Yes, in the wild they will be killed, but that is for survival of other animals for food. This goes to show that zoos do not represent how society and the world should be treating and taking care of its own creatures. The zoos are killing and not protecting the valuable life forms of this earth.  

SeaWorld is a world famous amusement park of animals that people from all over the world come to see. The animals appear to look full of life doing tricks, but is that really how they are feeling and being treated the right way. Looking at one specific animal displayed in SeaWorld is the Orcas. SeaWorld of Hurt sheds light that “in the wild orcas spend up to 95 percent of their time submerged and would find shade in the depths of the ocean, but at SeaWorld their tanks are far too shallow” and it results in their skin getting sunburnt (“10 Things”). The SeaWorld is taking these orcas from their homes to place them into smaller tanks, “orcas are forced to breed on a regular basis” by getting “trained to float on their backs, and their trainers masturbate them to collect” and inseminated the younger females, and their lifespan becomes shorter in the tanks (“10 Things”). 

The orcas example is just one example of how hurtful SeaWorld can be. SeaWorld has had multiple other incidences with other animals such as the dolphins and whales that have had negative results. Aside from the orcas, the rest of the animals in SeaWorld also live in cramped spaces and tanks, while viewers see the animals’ activities as “educational”, the activities “harm animals physically and emotionally” (“10 Things”). There is no true purpose to these animal amusement parks correlating along with zoos, they have only true purpose, and that is to make a dollar. This park has avoided and violated the regulations of the Animal Welfare Act by using “expired surgical materials, some almost a decade old” and they also had the orca tank “cracked and contained crumbling concrete and rusty beams that could pose a threat to the health and safety of both the animals and workers” (“10 Things”). This is a reflection of the regulation laws and how the Animal Welfare Act laws need to be updated or changed. The laws are there to protect the animals but there needs to be a change in the laws since there are parks getting by and not being regulated. This is a fault in not only SeaWorld, but in the federal government that needs correcting.

A sanctuary is a place of refuge for injured or sick animals and the sanctuary nurtures the sick and hurt back to health. In the 1980’s, the very first sanctuary was opened up. Once the animals are better, they are released back into their natural habitat instead of keeping them captive and showing them off. According to The Wild Animal Sanctuary, it “is a state and federally licensed zoological facility and a non-profit organization” and has “responded to more than 1,000 requests from private citizens and government agencies to rescue animals” (“The Wildlife”).  Sanctuaries’ main purposes are “to rescue captive large carnivores who have been abused, abandoned, illegally kept or exploited”, to make a “wonderful life” for them, and “to educate about the causes and solutions to the Captive Wildlife Crisis” (“The Wildlife”). 

 The “Rescue Center in Costa Rica” “admits more than 2,500 birds, mammals, and reptiles each year”, but there are some sad truths to a sanctuary that is unable to be fixed (AnimalPlanetTv).  Animals become too hurt and are unable to leave the sanctuaries. For example, if a bird injures, breaks, or tears its wing and it is unable to be fixed, the bird will stay at the sanctuary and will not be released back into the wild for its own safety. Sanctuaries are truly looking out for the best quality of life for animals and is one of the better options for the future. In order for animals to stay the way they were made to be and act, zoos and animal amusement parks need to change how they operate to look more like a sanctuary or shut down all together releasing the animals back to their homes, because sanctuaries are like an animal hospital for all the animals in the world and hospitals are there for benefit to help the sick and injured. 

Education is a big quality that should be looked into when hiring a person, a job to work with the care of animals and decide how the park or place of refuge will run. The education required to run a zoo is to only have a “bachelor’s degree in one of the life sciences, which includes biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and zoology” or an “associates degree in zoo technology at a community college that is connected with a local zoo” (“Become a Professional”). If a director over a hospital or most major business CEOs have to have at least a masters if not higher, then the zoo director in charge of the animals should have a higher degree. Yes, they go through training, but that is not enough specific education on the animals to be able to judge what is the best solution or care for the animals.

In SeaWorld, the education required to work with the animals and actually ride and preform on them is not a high amount of education. The performers “have no formal education in marine biology” (“10 Things”). With no background on how the animals work, feel, and act, there is no way to know exactly how to treat the animals. This should be a change in the Animal Welfare Act that if you are working with animals, whether to preform or just feed, there needs to be a background of marine biology if they are going to remain open. However, the best thing for the animals and the animals only is to let the animals back into the natural habitat and not keep them in a strange environment making them work for food without abuse. 

Like humans, animals experience emotion and have feelings that show in their behavior. When thinking of animals, people sometimes forget how the animals react and feel when they are trapped, put in a cage, and forced to do what the zookeeper wants. Imagine if the human race reversed the roles with the animals and humans were put in cages, tanks, and were unable to freely live and move around or hunt and eat what they desired. Putting that scenario into perspective changes things. Animal Australia spoke about a polar bear that had been in captivity since birth, but he “began compulsively swimming figure eights in his pool for up to 12 hours per day” and “an animal psychologist determined that Gus was bored” (“5 Things”). The boredom led to Gus staring down children so the zoo responded and placed a “barrier” to not scare the kids. Gus received behavioral therapy and “his compulsive swimming eased” but he “died in captivity in 2013 at age 27” (“5 Things”). 

From the case in Animal Australia, SeaWorld has lost a lot of its attendance because they have been giving their marine animals anti-depressants. The US public is starting to understand that these animals are not happy in these setting and are not going to support it anymore. Animal Australia said it best that “living in captivity has been found to lead some animals to neurosis and depression” and this is not the way creatures of this world should be treated. There are more things than the zoos to blame for this occurrences of the treatment of defenseless animals in the US, and the federal government needs to take charge, and change the way zoos and SeaWorld operates.  

Sanctuaries are not the most perfect and flawless system that can be created for the animals, it is just like any other business or creation. According to Shea, “Federal Law regulates the ones that, much like zoos, exhibit animals to the public. Those are inspected at least yearly” but since “private sanctuaries that don’t exhibit animals” they “aren’t regulated by the federal government” (Shea). Although the private sanctuaries are flawed, they are the best answer for the animals today. The move past this and better the system, the federal government need to establish more regulations for private owned sanctuaries to keep an eye on the care of the helpless animals against the cruelty masters and owners today. 

The public of the US is showing great amounts of support in relation to animal health and captivity. From here, I believe the Federal government is going to change some of the regulations in favor of the animals due to the amount of care and attention that is being drawn to this subject. Therefore, zoos and animal amusement parks regulations under the federal government need to be changed and updated to resemble sanctuaries’ regulations for the animals to receive the right care and attention if they are sick or injured, and if they are healthy, then they are to be released into their natural habitat.  
