Around the world animals are held against their free will. They are tortured and deprived of having a life in the wild that is natural for them. Even though zoos, aquariums, and other animal holding facilities are seen as safe havens that provide protection for animals from predators, global warming, deforestation, and extinction, they are still not suitable dwelling places for them. Being raised naturally in the wild as opposed to in captivity provides animals with many benefits such as low stress levels, longer life spans, and normal animal behavior.
Many people in the 1960’s believed Flipper the Dolphin to be one of the happiest dolphins alive. Little did they know that the smile he paraded around while doing tricks and stunts was all an …show more content…
As substantial of a reason as this sounds it is not sufficient enough to deny animals of their freedom. As Henry David Thoreau once said “to gain true and complete knowledge of wild animals, one must observe them in their natural habitats.” Thoreau who is a famous American poet believed that to really learn about animals you have to study them in their natural habitat. While they are in captivity their behaviors become abnormal due to the fact that they are not in their natural surroundings. Studies have shown that most people who go to the zoo do not go for educational purposes anyways since many of them spend minimal time looking at each display. John Sorenson in his book “Critical Animal Studies: Thinking the Unthinkable” proved that statistic. He discovered through a Zoo check study at the Toronto Zoo that “on average visitors spent just seventy seven seconds looking at elephants. There’s not a lot that can be learned in such a short time span, except perhaps the size, shape, and color of the animal; even then, their shape is often fat and bloated compared to what the elephant looks like in the wild” To learn about any animal you have to observe them for longer than just over a minute. Zoos also provide very minimal information on animals. In the article “Zoos: Pitiful Prisons” they discovered that “rather than promoting respect for the understanding of animals, signs often provided little more information than an animal’s species, diet, and natural range.” For an institution that promotes the educational purposes of zoos, the lack of information they provide on each animal is
Many people in the 1960’s believed Flipper the Dolphin to be one of the happiest dolphins alive. Little did they know that the smile he paraded around while doing tricks and stunts was all an …show more content…
As substantial of a reason as this sounds it is not sufficient enough to deny animals of their freedom. As Henry David Thoreau once said “to gain true and complete knowledge of wild animals, one must observe them in their natural habitats.” Thoreau who is a famous American poet believed that to really learn about animals you have to study them in their natural habitat. While they are in captivity their behaviors become abnormal due to the fact that they are not in their natural surroundings. Studies have shown that most people who go to the zoo do not go for educational purposes anyways since many of them spend minimal time looking at each display. John Sorenson in his book “Critical Animal Studies: Thinking the Unthinkable” proved that statistic. He discovered through a Zoo check study at the Toronto Zoo that “on average visitors spent just seventy seven seconds looking at elephants. There’s not a lot that can be learned in such a short time span, except perhaps the size, shape, and color of the animal; even then, their shape is often fat and bloated compared to what the elephant looks like in the wild” To learn about any animal you have to observe them for longer than just over a minute. Zoos also provide very minimal information on animals. In the article “Zoos: Pitiful Prisons” they discovered that “rather than promoting respect for the understanding of animals, signs often provided little more information than an animal’s species, diet, and natural range.” For an institution that promotes the educational purposes of zoos, the lack of information they provide on each animal is