Zoos should be abolished

Anna Mead 

Reporter 

Zoos should be abolished for being unethical towards animals in captivity. On May 28 in 2016, a three-year-old boy climbed over a fence into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinatti Zoo where he was grabbed by a 17-year-old west Lowland gorilla named Harambe. Fearing for the boy’s life, a worker at the zoo shot and killed the gorilla.  

This incident was caused by a woman who was not paying attention to her son and the situation ended in a very tragic way. The gorilla was using its natural instincts when the boy fell in and got killed for doing such. 

Animals in captivity are still animals. They still have wild instinct and use those instincts when put into certain situations. What happened at the Cincinatti Zoo in 2016 was an unfair thing to happen to an animal that was just being itself.  

According to the pros and cons website, zoos educate people, they produce helpful research and help with animals who are endangered.  

There are other forms of education and other resources to use when learning about animals. There is no need to see them in person because those animals are not acting the way they would if they were in the wild. Therefore, you are seeing false information right in front of you. Animal Planet is a good and reliable source for learning about animals.  

Do zoos produce research? I believe that zoos can produce research. However, there are better ways to gather that research other than locking up all these animals and leaving them in enclosures that are way too small for them for extended periods of time. Most animals in the enclosures are there just so people can come by and look at them, the animals sit there with nothing being done with them most of the time.  

Animals should have free range to do whatever they want and go wherever they want, whenever they please. It is unfair that we force animals to come with us just to show them off to people when they were perfectly content where they were. If it is for a research project then I think we should be the ones to go to them, not the other way around.   

Zoos are good at protecting animals that are endanger. There are many people that go out and hunt for animals and use them for illegal purposes. I also believe that by taking animals into captivity it is completely ignoring the fact that there are still poachers out there killing animals. I believe that while we are trying to protect animals, we need to do our part stop poachers from killing animals.  

Once we realize that there is a better hope for the animals in the zoo, the better off they will be. A lot of people argue the fact that animals are in danger out in the wild, but that is their natural home and they have a right to live there just as much as we have a right to live in our homes. We should want to protect them in ways that benefit them, not protect them in ways that take away from them living their natural life.  

While zoos are typical family fun, the animals held there are longing for a better life outside in the wild, where they belong.