Persuasive Letter About Zoos

Dear Ms. Indira Naidoo-Harris,

Over the years there has been a lot of controversy over zoos. There are currently many animal welfare activists and organizations such as PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) who have been actively protesting issues like zoos. Their claims include things such as “Zoos deprive animals of the opportunity to satisfy their most basic needs” (PETA website). Although in many cases this is true, zoos have the potential to be the change that animals need. With some goal-oriented planning and some help from the government, zoos can become humane, educational conservation tools. I’m writing to ask you to please consider teaming up with an organisation such as PETA to make some adjustments to the following things

The truth of the matter is that they are not all they claim to be. They claim to be shelters for endangered animals, educational facilities or places to fall in love with animals. They say that they are creating people who are passionate about the welfare of animals. Although these claims may be true in some cases, it is clear that many of the most popular zoos a certainly not accomplishing these goals. “If we have 700 million visitors a year going to zoos around the world and if zoos are creating people that are concerned and passionate about conservation. Where are all these conservations? Why don’t I see them?” -David Hancocks. This statement is absolutely eye opening. Why don’t we see any of these conservations? This just shows us that the goal of educating people so that they can be passionate about these issues isn’t happening. CEO of Zoos Victoria Jenny Gray said in a documentary called Zoo Revolution that “Too save rhinos is going to cost millions of dollars a year”. She is referring to the breeding programs that are set up in many institutions such as Zoos Victoria to conserve biodiversity on Earth. This would be the cost for her zoo to contribute to saving the rhinos. This cost coupled with the fact that there are many more breeding programs in place, the zoo will end up spending their money on other things. As you can see, in both of these examples zoos just aren’t accomplishing their purposes.

I believe that every zoo should be required to create specific, measurable and timely goals for their institutions yearly and actively take steps towards accomplishing these goals. Some zoos currently want to release all of their animals back into the wild. This is a huge undertaking for a zoo. Often as they get closer to their goal, they will have less revenue from their business as people are less interested when there are not as many animals. If that isn’t enough, a recent study shows that only 30% of animals that were released back into the wild survived. The study showed that among other things, the formerly captive animals were more susceptible to starvation and disease than their wild cousins. How do the zoos plan to combat problems like this in their program? Things like this will be outlined in their plan. These goals will allow the progress of zoos to be monitored along with the standards mentioned in the previous paragraph. Zoos will be able to customize their goals as different institutions will want to achieve different goals. Some may be focused on breeding programs, other on fundraising for initiatives are happening to help animals in the wild. This requirement will allow the zoos to continue their important work towards the welfare of animals while upholding the standards required of them by the government and allowing their progress to be monitored to hold them accountable to their