Why Zoos Are Good By Dr. Dave Hone

Zoos are controversial and there are had been many arguments whether they are beneficial or harmful. Many say zoos are harmful to animals and they affect them mentally and emotionally. Others think zoos are beneficial and do a great job in their efforts to conserve endangered animal populations. Clearly some zoos have issues with the care and treatment of their animals. Overall, zoos are harmful to animals.
Zoos force animals to live in a small enclosure which can affect an animal badly. An example of an animal that was forced to live in a small enclosure was a polar bear named Gus, who was written about in the article, ¨Zoos Drive Animals Crazy¨ by Laura Smith. In the article, it was stated that Gus ¨was forced to live in an enclosure that is 0.00009 percent of the size his range would have been in his natural habitat.¨ Being in such a small space, Gus had to go through ¨stereotypic behavior,¨ a behavior that is done repeatedly and serving no purpose to the animal. Some examples of stereotypic behavior are bar biting, pacing, repetitive hair plucking, and regurgitation and reingestion. For Gus, it was swimming in figure-eight. These stereotypic behaviors are common to …show more content…
In the article, “Why Zoos are Good” by Dr. Dave Hone, he talks about how children and adults might not be able to see animals like giraffes or lions. They may only see these animals in zoos. Dr. Dave Hone also states that people who visit zoos connects with animals and learns about how to help and protect the animals. On the other hand, in the article “Zoos Drive Animals Crazy” by Laura Smith it was stated that it is a problem zoos are created so that people can stare at the animals. The reason is because it gives most animals stress when they are being stared at. Also in the same article, it was said that it is impossible to connect with the animals because of the “structural limitations of the