Should Zoos Be Banned

James Koo

Imagine being confined in a compacted room with nowhere to go. How would you feel?
People capturing you and chucking you into a cell like you do not belong. Would you want
this? This is what it feels like to be an animal help captive in a zoo. Hence why, l strongly
agree that zoos should be banned because they inflict animal cruelty, they don’t allow
animals to adapt to the wild and it is not educational.

Firstly, zoos should be banned because they are the main reason for animal cruelty. Each
year, thousands of animals are kept in captive establishments and are severely mistreated
due to confinement. This is because zoos cannot provide sufficient space, thus sometimes
leading to putting ten or more animals in one enclosure. In addition, to suffering from these
circumstances, animals are prone to dying earlier. A government-funded study of elephants
in UK zoos has found that 54% of elephants show behavioural problems during the daytime.
As a result, it is found that African elephants living in the wild are likely to live three times
the lifespan of a captive. An example of this was Chai, a 27-year-old who died at Oklahoma
City Zoo in 2016. Before her death, Chai was regularly seen chained with anchors around all
her four legs. To make things worse, a three-foot-long hose was inserted into her
reproductive tact. This was repeated ten times a month to make her have babies until she
died.

Furthermore, banning zoos would mean animals in captivity would have the chance to adapt
to the wild. In today’s world, everything has to adapt to survive whether it will be bacteria or
an orca. How can you expect for a zoo animal to survive? For example, if you released a zoo
animal for the first time and compared it with the same animal that has been in the wild for
all its life. How do you expect for the zoo animal to compare with a wild one? Whilst you
might be thinking zoos help endangered species repopulate, according to Will Travers OBE,
only 15% of the thousands of species held in zoos are considered “threatened”. An even
smaller proportion of this are released back into the wild. “That’s not a reason that justifies
tens of millions of wild animals kept in zoos,” PETA’s Bekhechi adds, “The aim of breeding
programmes is just to reproduce animals to attract attention.”
Moreover, zoos should be banned because they promote an inaccurate image of animals.
Zoo animals and animals in the wild are two different things. Lions in the wild do not spend
half of their time pacing, bears do not have their food handled for them and elephants do
not live alone. Every time l go to the zoo, l see an animal locked inside a cage that is normally
not active. If zoos are teaching children anything, it is that capturing imprisoning animals for
our own entertainment is acceptable. On the other hand, some argue zoos are beneficial for
kids. “We engage huge audiences with wildlife, inspiring the conservationists of tomorrow,”
argues zoological director of ZSL London and Whipsnade Zoos, Professor David Field. A 2019
study by the Society of Conservation Biology found that of over 2,800 children surveyed
following visits to London Zoo, 62% showed no positive learning outcomes. However, with
nature documentaries, the Internet, travelling and even just taking a walk, learning about
animals in their real habitat has never been easier. A much better alternative than going to
the zoo.

Ultimately, zoos must banned because they inflict animal cruelty, they don’t let animals
adapt to the wild and are not educational. Change needs to happen, so the future of our
beloved animals do not end in an unfortunate way. Zoos need to be banned now!