Zoos: The Reality Of It All

There are too many zoos where animals pace metal cages and cramped outdoor enclosures. If there is a wild animal in a zoo, it just means that there is one less animal in the wild. It is better to see animals in the wild, not in captivity. Despite professed concerns for animals, zoos remain more "collections" of interesting "items" than actual havens. Zoos teach people that is acceptable to keep animals in captivity, bored, cramped, …

…ranches, and lastly zoos reintroduction programs are certainly not a successful cause. Virginia McKenna, star of the classic film Born Free made this quote: "For the four hours we spend in the zoo, the animals spend four years, fourteen, or perhaps even longer--if not in the same zoo then in others--day and night; summer and winter...This is not conservation and surely is not education. No, it is 'entertainment.' Not comedy however, but tragedy."