Pros And Cons Of Animal Captivity

When I was a young child, my parents took my brother and me to the Toronto Zoo, and I visited the site throughout my years in elementary school for field trips. I found a great pleasure in staring at these big, beautiful, and mysterious animals through the wide glass windows; and during the course of being adolescence, I marveled at the fact that, still, living in the city, we had the opportunity to be exposed to an animal in its “natural” habitat. (sites.psu.edu) However, amidst the entire fun one has at a facility like the zoo, can zoos be telling people that it is acceptable to hold animals as toys, and keep them locked in shackles for their entire lives? Good morning fellow classmates, honorable judges, and teachers. As you may have guessed, animal captivity- more specifically, zoos- have been affecting the voiceless for hundreds of years. Although many zoo defenders argue that being in captivity offers a better lifestyle as oppose to living in the wild, zoos do not provide any sense of dignity of the animals beneath their care. In fact, zoos trigger an abundance of unnecessary psychological and physical damage, have little investment in animal nourishment, and …show more content…
However, by presenting animals to zoo spectators as exhibits, is teaching children that we as humans are able to manipulate creatures in the world, in order to fulfill our curiosity. This skewered topic suggests that animals are not individuals who are able to think, and feel for themselves. (www.captiveanimals.org.) Zoo supporters argue that having animals in cages all day long are beneficial for educational purposes; however, most visitors only stay at each cage for two to three minutes, and view each exhibit as wallpaper. (www.peta.com) Moreover, the small cages in which they inhabit do not depict the natural behaviour in the wild, as the animals become more conditioned to life in captivity, and drop the habits in which are natural to