Keeping Animals in Captivity Essay Sample

A 2015 study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology concluded that unless animals in the wild are protected, captive breeding won’t make a difference,” (1,Eric Prieto).Everyone likes going to the zoo, but most don’t know what goes on behind the scenes. “We like animals. And we like to be around them, and we like to be able to conveniently encounter animals without any significant effort on our part.”(1) Taking animals out of their natural habitat to “help” them doesn’t necessarily make a difference because animals are trapped in unnatural environments, being held captive may cause mental damage, some zoos are only concerned about profit and not the animals’ well being.

To begin with animals are trapped in artificial, constricting environments which leads to severe physical effects on animals. Obesity is a dangerous threat to large animals like elephants that are in wildlife parks. The main causes of obesity in zoos include overfeeding and lack of exercise. Therefore to keep the animals best interest, considering to enlarge cages or help to get the animals a healthy amount of exercise would be beneficial! Zoos also need to do a better job at pinpointing problems and acting on them. Possibly then there wouldn’t be issues like animals trapped in artificial, constricting environments which leads to severe physical effects on animals.

Additionally, zoos can have a harsh effect on innocent animals’ mental health. again many zoos do not have the animals' best interest. Most animals are in need of a companion. Most zoos do not have enough funds or equipment to provide this for the animal. Therefore the animal tends to get lonely and their mental health starts to decline. Tourists start to notice this, or get bored when there is no action or involvement between that animal and another. When tourists realize the guest count will also start to decline. Which will lead to less income which leads to less money for equipment. It’s all just one big domino effect.

Furthermore, zoos may be more concerned about profit than the animals' well being.  A lot of zoos are clearly just in it for the income. Zoos don’t necessarily spend a lot of time doing background checks and making sure applicants have the right skills to be employed at the zoo and working with animals. Although there are zero training courses that most employees are required to take, they aren’t always legitimate. Zoos also aren’t very protective over their animals against tourists. They don’t spend enough money on caging which leads to children touching animals that are not supposed to be touched, which can also lead to emotional damage to the animal. Overall zoos need to be more concerned about the animals well-being rather than the profit.

In conclusion animals are trapped in a natural environment being held captive may cause mental damage, and zoos are more concerned about profit than the animals well-being. Although some zoos take proper precautions and are well organized and thought out that is not always the case. To help prevent this A fundraiser will be made that will involve animal cookies and every time someone buys A cookie money will go to a zoo in need.