Confession of a bad vegetarian - I love zoos!

[4_Legs_Good]

I do, I can't help it. I love them. Ones with nice enclosures, of course. To be honest I've only been to a few, but I adore them.

Now this made me feel very schizo and guilty and I would think of a thousand rationalizations until I read "The Life of Pi", and that kinda eased my guilt a bit. But dang if it's not a work of fiction! I know Yann Martel did his homework, but I'm not sure I 100% buy it.

Is anyone else disturbed about this? I don't want to start a flame war or anything; I'm just curious if other veggies/animal rights activists love/hate zoos.

Good zoos, I'm talking about here, especially ones involved in endangered species programs - The Wild Animal Park, the Santa Barbara Zoo, maybe the San Deigo Zoo...

david

[flvegan]

1. Depends on the "zoo"

Our local zoo, Lowry Park, does both good and bad things. They help endangered species, nurse hurt animals, etc, but also import African elephants.

I detest zoos that don't do some kind of "rescue" so to speak. Just charge an entry fee to gawk at critters in cages.

I also have some faith in TAOS. Some zoos can be sanctuaries, and vice versa. If TAOS says it's all good, I take a step back.

[Warpy]

7. Very much so

The local one has a good big cat breeding program, and the big cats have good enclosures (small, but good) where they can wander through jungle vegetation. The primates and polar bears also have great enclosures. The barriers are water filled ditches and impossible to scale concrete walls, and most viewing points look downward. There aren't any bars.

I could watch the polar bears for hours. It's amazing to see something that huge PLAY.

[livinginphotographs]

2. Last time I was at a zoo

was the National Zoo in DC. The gorillas were in a pretty empty (there was some brush lying around and a tire swing but that's about it) concrete enclosure with a glass cage. Most of the people were laughing and beating on the glass as the chimps were freaking out. I was probably about ten, and even then I could see that you shouldn't take an animal from its natural habitat, imprison it in a concrete room, and then torture it by beating on the glass and trying to freak it out.

There may be good ones, but that experience has kind of soured me on zoos, even before I went vegan.

[4_Legs_Good]

3. That sounds awful!

The gorilla enclosure at the Santa Barbara Zoo (which is a small zoo, but with a big budget), is quite nice and lush with lots of places the Gorillas (2) can get away from the public eye (which they do often).

But even that's a little iffy for me - every time I see them I think they should be at school, not in a zoo.

The San Diego Wild Animal Park was originally created as a breeding area for the San Diego Zoo (and others). It's really quite impressive, particularly since most of it is completely open savanna (?). Anyway, I think most good zoos get their animals from breeding programs not captured from the wild.

The big scandal in the Eureka Zoo in Humbodt County (California) was that they were renovating the bear enclosure, so they had to move the bears, but nobody would take them in the meantime (because they're so common), so they actually shot them. That's the craziest thihng I've ever heard. Needless to say I've never been there.

david

[Borgnine]

4. I was at the National Zoo last summer.

It was the first time I was at a zoo since becoming a vegetarian, and it was rough seeing the gorillas (who are so close to being human) being stared at by hundreds of people in a noisy room with cameras repeatedly flashing.

I wouldn't have a problem so much with zoos if they replicated the natural habitat better than a concrete room with a tree. They should also work harder to make the animals oblivious to the crowds gawking at them.

[4_Legs_Good]

5. I certainly agree there.

There's no way I could get behind a zoo that didn't provide a relatively natural environment for most of its inhabitants.

I wish I could find some pics of good enclosures to give as examples of what I think is reasonable. I'll see what I can do.

Concrete rooms are obviously not acceptable.

david

[SiouxJ]

6. I live in a smallish rural town and we have a rehabilitation zoo

they take in injured or orphaned animals and if they can, they get them ready to go back out into the wild. If not, then they have a home at the zoo. I give money to them every year and when I eventually find time, I plan on volunteering over there. They desperately need volunteers and money. I try to get my friends to go to the zoo, to support it. Even the Veterinarians are volunteering their time at this place. We have a tiger that was someone's pet; a bear whose mother was shot by a hunter; coyotes and javelinas that were inured; pronghorn antelope that someone thought were orphans (they were not, the mothers tend to hide when they feel threatened); a talking raven that was someone's pet, etc., etc. etc. They are always trying to expand their cage sizes and give the animals more room and also, they do a lot of enrichment activities - that's where they make up challenging games for the animals to keep them from getting bored.

I originally came here from San Diego, so I grew up going to the Zoo and even worked at the Wild Animal Park. The best thing about the SD Zoo, and WAP is that they breed endangered animals (like you mentioned). I know some zoos sell animals for canned hunts through their breeding programs, but I would have to be shown proof that San Diego does this. They are very concerned about their animals' welfare. I was lucky enough to get a behind the scenes tour of the SD Zoo when I was younger and the place is unbelievably organized back there. They even grow a lot of their own food, which is better quality than the stuff we get in the grocery store. I remember being very impressed at the expense they went to for the animals. They also were one of the first (if not THE first), to start getting rid of cages and replace them those "free range" type pens. That was the whole idea behind the WAP, to let the animals experience as natural a habitat as possible (and to breed endangered animals like White Rhinos). If you've never been to the SD WAP, it like being in Africa. The animals are not in cages or pens.

Anyway, I'm sure there's a lot of abuse at some zoos but they've come a long way. I make sure to only support the ones I'm pretty confident about. I still hate seeing animals penned up but when I know they would be dead otherwise, I can live with it, as long as they are treated decently.