Why Do Zoos Keep Animals Captive?

Zoos exist for one main reason, conservation, but does locking animals up actually help a species survive? When zoos keep animals captive, they often become depressed, not successful in conservation and exposed to harsh habitat conditions. Animals experience unfair and cruel lives while humans use the excuse of protection to keep them captive.Therefore, I take the position that keeping animals captive is a cruel thing.
Animals in captivity are often depressed, lonely, and aggressive due to human interactions. Animals such as dolphins and whales, tend to get frustrated with all the screaming children and clapping adults. They tend to get bored of swimming in their small enclosures all day. As stated by Lori Valigra, “When tasked with entertaining tourists all day, with nowhere to escape, cetaceans often become bored, frustrated and aggressive.” This shows how human …show more content…
Animals are often held up in small enclosures where they become frustrated and aggressive. Being locked up prohibits the collection of their own food. As clearly stated in “Zoos: Pitiful Prisons”, “Some animals are confined next to their predators, and some are held in crammed, barren environments where they are constantly bullied by cagemates” This shows that animals are exposed to unacceptable environments that no one would want to live in. The other side may argue that zoos have noticed the treatment and changed their ways. I would argue that no matter how good the zoos are or how much space there is, it’s no comparison to the space they would have if in the wild. As stated in "List of Pros and Cons of Zoos”, “...animals that are confined to the zoo suffer from negative psychological effects due to the confinement” This explains that since the animals are crammed into small enclosures they don’t experience the freedom they would in the wild. The animals in the wild are free to roam and have as much space as they