Reflective Essay: Should Zoos Be Banned?

Have you ever thought about how zoos impact or help the animals that are being held in captivity? Zoos are used to teach people about the animal kingdom and how it works. But the topic in question is; are zoos all that safe for our beloved animals.  Well, you tell me. When held in captivity animals tend to live longer and also tend to be very healthy and most importantly they educate the public who can't afford to travel the world to see all the animals our beautiful Earth has to offer. Another great reason zoos need to stay open is because they keep animals safe and healthy.

To begin with, the animals in captivity live longer, this is because when in a zoo they are brought into view and are treated much more like humans, like having a better diet. The article “The case for the end of modern zoos” states “and full-time vets, antibiotics, better diets have in most cases even tripled [the animals] life spans in captivity” paragraph 7. Evidently, this all means that if zoos get banned lots of animals will start to go extinct because there won't be any place that will take them in and help them. We need zoos to stay open so that our animals will live on.

The other reason that zoos should stay open is that zoos educate the public who cannot afford to travel around the world. The article “Do we need zoos” says “....educate the public…. Give a chance to those who can’t afford to travel, a chance to see the animals”. Showing that lots of people rely on zoos to help people have a quick distraction for cheap. So with all that being said, we need to keep our zoos open so that everyone will get a good education on animals.

However, Some people may argue that zoos should be banned. They believe this to be true because in a few of the zoos the animals are not getting treated well. For example, the article “Do we need zoos” says “a study of animals at the San Deigo Zoo found some[animals] had died from frequent tranquilizing, malnutrition, and some had suffered several injuries while being transported”. As much as this is true this doesn’t happen everywhere and we can’t let one study make all zoos shut down because like it was said before if all zoos shut down it will put the lives of many animals on the line.

As expressed, there are many pros and cons to zoos being open. There are also ways for the cons to be fixed so that there will be more pros.