Heavy, insulating fur covers every inch of your body. There is nothing around you but thick metal bars. The humid air around you gets thicker as the night goes on. Nothing can be heard. Just an eerie silence fills the room. No bird songs, not rustling in the cages beside you. All of your senses are shielded by a blanket of the pitch black night. It's just you and your solid metal cage that you barely fit in. Is this where you would want to spend your life? Would you thrive in this environment? How could you ever be happy?




Zoos torture their animals and act like they can’t do anything to improve what they already have, but they can. There are many things that would be easy to change and would make the animals that live there a little bit happier.

Everybody loves baby animals. There’s no question about it. They are just a much cuter version of their parents. How could you not love them? When there are more babies at a zoo, more and more people want to go to that zoo and see the animals. And when more people want to see the babies, the zoo gets more of what they want. Money.
But what happens when the babies become older, and aren’t as cute as they were? What happens when no one is interested anymore? What happens when the animals are unwanted? The way each zoo deals with this problem is up to them. Whatever they do may not be the right thing to do, or be very nice, but does that matter?

Many zoos just leave their baby animals to die. This is because most of the time there is no more available space for another animal to live and be cared for. Just imagine a little baby lion that is so adorable and excited to be living, and then the zoo comes along and kills it. Why would you use money to support a breeding program just to throw all that money and effort away and kill the babies?
Most zoos only care about the amount of money that they are making. Zoo New England (Franklin Park and Stone Zoo) made almost 8 million dollars. The more money, the happier their customers are because the zoo has better food, and more seating, and playgrounds, and better gifts at the giftshop. And whenever you have happy customers, they want to come back, but this time, bring friends and family. This means more money. Many zoos pay a lot of money for the tools and the people to have a breeding program. But why? If the zoo is just going to “throw away” the babies that they have after they have grown older, why even bother to waste all that money on something you are just going to dispose of? Because humans are in need of entertainment. Constant entertainment.
You may think that it’s bad that zoos kill their baby animals after they have become unwanted, or less cute. However, that is only the beginning of the story. Since zoos have such successful breeding programs, they have surplus animals. What do they do with them? Just like the babies, they kill most of them. This is because that is the easiest and cheapest way to dispose of them.
Another way that zoos handle or deal with their extra animals is to just get rid of them. Many zoos either package the extra animals like trash, and ship them off hundreds of miles away to other zoos. In return for taking the animals, sometimes zoos must pay to have another zoo take their surplus animals.
Another section of the surplus animals are “recycled”. When animals are recycled, it means that they are given to other animals as a meal. Sometimes animals are given to tigers or lions live. Many zoos say that the people who visit think that it is interesting to see how animals like tigers and lions would handle live prey.
One last way that zoo deal with their extra animals is to sell them to either a shooting range or a hunting range. The shooting/hunting ranges pay the zoo to set the animals out into a large enclosed area. Once they are released, they have hunters go out and look for the animals, and then shoot them. They shoot animals in an enclosed area as practice for shooting animals in the wild. This is also called canned hunting. One zoo that is included in this event is the Seaview Lion Park. The Seaview Lion park breeds most of their lions to sell them to canned hunting facilities. When you come across a zoo where you can handle the animals, such as pet them, or be in a cage with them, that is usually a sign that those animals are going to be participants in a canned hunting program. In other words, people shoot twice the amount the animals they would if they just went out into the woods and didn't practice shooting innocent animals.
Zoos also help with the conservation of endangered species. Or at least, they say they do. To help or save endangered species, you would have to know how many of that specific animal is left in the world. And to know that information, zoos would have to know how many of the species other zoos have. And to know that information, you would need something like a database that would let all zoos know how many of each species there are in captivity. And that is one thing that zoos do not have.
Also, what kinds of animals do you see at zoos? Do you see giant kangaroo rats? Do you see a sri lankan elephant? Do you see vaquitas? No. You see zebras and lions and and sea otters. Yes, those are animals that you would not see if there were no zoos, but is it really worth it?
To be able to say that you are saving and helping to conserve endangered species, you have to actually have endangered species at your zoo. In addition, if zoos were able to repopulate endangered species(which they are not), the survival rate of how many animals survive after they have been released back into the wild is little to none. This is because the habitats that zoos provide for animals are no where close to decent if you compared them to real environments.
The restrictions that are present in zoos are things that animals need to survive. For example, when animals such as lions and tigers are fed, their meat is just hung up in a tree or in a hole for them to eat. That is not nearly as hard as chasing your prey, and then killing it. Also, many birds have a very hard time flying when they first arrive at zoos because their cages are too small. After a year or two of being in those small cages, most birds can no longer fly.
You’re in a cage. Not just any cage. A tiny cage. You can barely move. You’re trying to sleep. But how much sleep could you possibly get? None. Because you’re cold and uncomfortable and, well, stuck in a tiny cage. Would you like that? Would you stay sane? Would you be happy? The answer to all of these questions is no. Being in a zoo is nothing like being in the wild, where animals are supposed to be. When animals are free, and in their natural habitats, they don’t have restricted diets or living space. Ther get to do what they want, when they want to. The environments that zoo provide for their animals are nothing close to the real thing, and can be harmful.
Want to help animals that are suffering at zoos because of cramped cages or enclosures that are just too small to satisfy their basic need? You can donate $10.00 to an organization such as WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) that helps zoos make their sleeping cages and environments more enjoyable for the animals.