In the zoo wild animals are taken from their natural habitats and put into cages that are small and they are confined into these little areas. When we go to the zoo we sometimes notice the animals acting weird, biting or sucking the poles, just pacing back and forth, or eating their feces and vomit. In this article it is said that these behaviors are caused by boredom, loneliness, anger, stress, and lack of their true habitat. These animals suffer while we look at them behind cages and glass. Many animals die due to the lack of food, unnatural feeding patterns which is usually not getting fed much throughout the day, and interbreeding. We go to the zoo to see how animals act and such but because they are in a different environment they have to adjust to it and adapt changing the natural behaviors they would have in the wild in their natural habitat. In the zoo animals are separated from their families, they don't gain much survival skills so they really can't be put back into the wild because they wouldn't know how to hunt for their own food.
In this second article we see similar observations. Being caged doesn't allow the animals to run free, explore, find their own food, soar in the sky, and do whatever they please. In the zoo sometimes we get bored looking at the animals because they aren't doing anything but that is because of their boredom. They don't gain much intelligence because they are in captivity. Zoos also like to showcase baby animals because they know that's what catches people's attention. Because of this there have been overbreeding decreasing the space animals have and making things more uncomfortable. However, one of the benefits of zoos is that they can play a small role in helping endangered species. Because they breed these animals they can increase the population of the endangered specie. The only thing is that they "won't have anywhere to go" because they are not in the wild instead they're in cages.
In a psychological point of view some people feel that zoos are effecting the way people feel about animals. When reading this I agreed. They say that it puts out a message that humans are superior to animals and that we can do what we please with them. Philosopher Dale Jamieson also agrees and said " Zoos teach us a false sense of our place in the natural order. The means of confinement mark a difference between humans and animals. They are there at our pleasure, to be used for our purposes. Morality and perhaps our very survival require that we learn to live as one species among many rather than as one species over many. To do this we must forget what we learn at zoo." Basically animals should be left in the wild and not used for our own pleasure and entertainment.
No comments:
Post a Comment