Should Zoos Be Made Illegal

Should Zoos be Made Illegal?

Zoos have been around for hundreds of years, in fact they can be dated back all the way to 1250 BC, when ancient Egyptian records described birds, lions, and giraffes in captivity. Today there are over 10,000 zoos worldwide, entertaining millions with exotic animals behind bars. With species threatened and habitats disappearing worldwide, due to poaching and destruction caused by man, zoos are playing a new role in conservation. But are they really achieving what they claim? A growing number of critics argue no.

Imagine a world where you have no control over anything that happens to you, when you sleep, when and what you eat, where you can go, or who you start a family with. That is the reality right now for

In 2012 a tiger escaped his enclosure in the Cologne zoo and killed a zookeeper before being shot dead, while another tiger in the Czech Republic escaped and mauled three zookeepers. Bulls, limas, peacocks, gorillas, chimpanzees and in one case two tigers are just some of the animals that have recently made their attempt for freedom by trying to escape.

One of the main arguments for the existence of zoos is that they help to protect endangered species. But this is not true. In fact, most animals in zoos aren’t endangered, this is because zoos are almost always attracted to the more “popular” animals meanwhile, they are ignoring smaller animals who actually need protection. The animals in zoos are all most never released back into their natural habitats, and in rare cases when they are, they have no sense of reality because the zoo has taken care of their every basic need, animals do not survive for long by themselves after being released, they are unfit to cope with life in the wild. If zoos really wanted to save animals from extinction, they would be helping protect animals natural habitats, not keeping them in