Cruelty of Zoos

     Have you ever gone to a zoo and seen an injustice to an animal? You may have and not even have realized it. Most people don’t. It doesn’t have to be an outright beating in front of your eyes to mean that cruelty is happening to the animals in captivity.
     Some zoos credit themselves with breeding programs and such, but most zoos don’t ensure the complete happiness and well being of their animals. If you’ve ever gone to a zoo or other such park, I’m sure you’ve noticed animals just laying around napping. And of course, animals will rest at different times of the day. That’s normal! But some of that could be caused by boredom and the sheer lack of anything to do or anywhere to go.

     So while this may be unintentional, most zoos don’t offer the animals any form of stimulation such as toys to play will or putting anything new in the enclosures to keep the animals interested.
     Just imagine yourself locked in room with no way out. The room has nothing in it for you to occupy yourself with. And you’re locked in there every day end every night for years. Wouldn’t you be depressed too? Eventually you would become listless and maybe even a little crazy. Is it no wonder the animals seem so sad?

     Animals in the wild are accustomed to roaming free and sometimes over great distances of land. But in captivity, they are confined to spaces too small to fit their needs. Some result to relentless pacing back and forth within the cage because they have energy to burn off but nowhere to go. Like the tiger in the photo below, the cage is only about 20 feet wide, but big cats such as this need far more room to keep healthy. So it walks restlessly for hours until it finally gives into the boredom and goes to sleep.

     But some injustices are more obvious. Sometimes the enclosures are too small for the animal to even barely move around at all.  As you can see in the photo below of the snake, the walls actually touch the snake on all four sides. The snake can’t even stretch itself out or crawl. Even if you are a person who doesn’t like snakes, surely you can see that it’s wrong. It’s sometimes that way for other animals as well.

     So, in by going to zoos and paying admission, you are helping to support this behavior. You can help by writing to your local zoos and officials urging them to improve their enclosure conditions and provide the animals with stimulation. And if possible, bring this issue to the attention of your local newspaper and news station. We can make a difference and improve the lives of the animals. All it takes is for someone to speak up, because they don’t have a voice of their own.