Your Next Facebook Share: Zoos Are Usually NOT Educational
Zoos have long tried to hide the cruelty of captivity behind a mask of “conservation education.” But a new study shows that learning is usually not the outcome.
©Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals
Sociologists in the United Kingdom gathered data from children between the ages of 7 and 15, both before and after they visited the London Zoo. The researchers found that 59 percent of children who took an educator-guided tour of the zoo had no positive educational outcomes. That number jumps to 66 percent when the children went on an unguided visit. And in many cases, the trip to the zoo even had a negative impact on children’s understanding of animals and their habitats.
The main thing to be learned from these sad places is how animals act when they are taken from their families, held in captivity, and denied everything that is natural and important to them.
Another study shows how detrimental captivity is to the animals.
© iStock.com/philhess
Great ape researchers observed 60 chimpanzees at three sanctuaries and six zoos in North America, of which 36 were former “pets” or used as performers. The chimpanzees who were reared by humans and thus had “impoverished social histories” were significantly less likely to bond with other apes by grooming them or engaging in sexual activity.
Researcher Dr. Stephen R. Ross noted: “Denying [chimpanzees] access to members of their own species, during the critical infanthood period, results in behavioral outcomes that last a lifetime. Even with the best possible care as adults, they often can’t fit in with the other chimpanzees.”
Captivity: It’s of little benefit to humans and greatly detrimental to animals.
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I fully agree zoos shud be closed down
Please free the animals
Its very painful to see animals living in small cages..
Free them
Zoos are no good
We dont need zoos to educate children about wild animals,there are other ways also to provide such educationboycott zoos. all of them.
I remember when I was little more than a toddler, my school took us to the zoo.
When we got back we were all told to write an essay about it. To this day I recall my great anger which prompted me to write 6 large pages against it.Zoos and Circuses teach children nothing but cruelty, control and confinement! There is absolutely no excuse to do this to any animal in this day and age. We have internet, compute
rs etc.etc. etc.!!!No entiendo muy bien, lo que está ocurriendo, pero solo con ver las imagenes, se que es sobre el dolor y sufrimiento de los an imales, es espantosa tanta crueldad. El hombre ha hecho de la Tierra un infierno para los animales.
I agree absolutly! I am against zoos!
Animals are the most beautiful in nature and
there are
a lot of fine documantory films – on Animals planet,
for example.
Such films have grate educatoinal impact,
but not zoos.
NataliaPlease allow animals that exist in the wild to BE wild! No more zoos!!!
It’s heartbreaking to see these great creatures locked up behind bars. I hope more people will have more empathy for them and imagine how it would feel to be in their place.
It is detrimental for animals be kept in captivity. Therefore, at the very least, they should be maintained with the best possible housing, food and socialization. The zoos should also use every opportunity to make their animals stay there aneducational experience for the public.
I used to take my children to the zoo when they were younger but now I realize how wrong it is
These animals were no intended to live in cages. They were born free and that’s where they should be…in their natural habitat without the fear of poachers.
Circus and Zoo’s go against nature I don’t think people realize that they hurt and feel sad and scared just like we do. Look at your children would you want them ripped from your arms and taken away to be put in a cage for millions of people to stare at they feel the same. The Circus that you pay a lot of money for to bring your children to enjoy costs the animal so much more they are beaten into submission for your pleasure!! Can you really feel good about that, remember supply and demand if you stop going to these places the animals would be left alone to be free.
We can learn much more about animals from the amazing and sympathetically made documentaries on TV. Zoos are outdated and no longer have a place in civilised societies. Boycott zoos and circuses which use animals for entertainment. It is simply ignorant and cruel and humankind should be better than that
I haven’t been to a zoo in quite a long time. I always felt somewhat uncomfortable when visiting one and now choose to support groups that focus on habitat protection and wildlife sanctuaries.
Put yourself in a caged animal’s position and think about how you got there.
Just for one day.
Horrendous.
Zoos must be turned into a thing of the past.Zoos and circuses no longer belong in today’s world.
Animals have rights, most humans are cruel beast. I agree with fellow people ban together and lets fight for the rights and ethical treatment of these creatures that cant have a say. When they do sometimes it ends in disaster for them and maybe the human they have maimed or killed. That is a desperate animal.
Zoos are sad places. Animals are depressed, repressed, angry, frustrated, and cannot live their natural lives. It seems very cruel and unatural to imprison these creatures.
Everyone who has ever visited a zoo knows how depressing the condition of the animals is–how little enrichment they offer–how drear the conditions in which they live out their confinement. Zoos are not only depressing to visitors, more importantly they are severely depressing, socially isolating, and anxiety producing for the animals. The fact that they are condemned to this miserable confinement for life is appalling. The experience is NOT educational, and it’s clear the animals suffer. Zoo animals need to be liberated to the wild if possible, if not to accredited sanctuaries where at least their life conditions would be vastly improved.
Animals belong in their natural habitat and should not be confined in zoos.
Zoos “showcase” twisted entertainment through imprisoned captivity, endless boredom and malnourishment….don’t patronage…parents may selfishly still want their kids to view such obviousness in animals, with very sad dispositions…yet is does nothing of positive purpose…the conservation angle (instead of sanctuaries) is a total, lame joke!
It literally hurts me to think about the animals in zoo’s and circuses. What lessons are we teaching children…cruelty.
I no longer visit the zoos. My last visit long time ago, i had taken pictures of the animals. when i looked at my pictures, i noticed something in common with all of them – very sad faces. Then i thought, these animals are miserable here. I never returned. Also the elephants had minimum amount of space to roam,that was plain aweful.
No animal should ever be put in a cage under any circumstance just to look at it….In my opinion zoos and circuses should be illegal all over the world…sanctuaries to save animals that can’t return to the wild for whatever reasons would be a better solution…Do on to others as you would do on to yourself…..
No wild animal should be kept in captivity whether it be in a Zoo or Circus.
Arrêtez de faire des bénéfices sur le dos de ces pauvres animaux, messieurs les directeurs de zoo. Prenez soin d’eux et faites en sorte de leur rendre leur liberté !!!
Even as a child I really didn’t enjoy going to the zoo. The animals looked bored and unhappy. The only animals that ever seemed to be having a good time were the seals. Now, until they’re found to be intrusive, I enjoy the fantastic wildlife films available on TV far more.
I’m starting to feel that zoos should be banned because they are caged in for so long with sometimes not much room to move. It’s not a good idea for kids to see, and not a learning experiment.
Yes, Zoos and Circuses with animals obviously disregard the well-being of precious creatures. To teach kids about conservation and animal treatment, read passages from *When Elephants Weep*, by Jeffrey Masson.
I’m reading “When Elephants Weep” right now. What a coincidence that you should mention it! The book points out that zoos are mainly interested in keeping animals docile, encouraging them to breed and using animals to make interesting exhibits for visitors to see. Zoos aren’t concerned with making the animals happy. Zoos know the animals are not happy being in captivity and being denied everything that’s natural and important to them. The book exposes the inappropriateness & cruelty of putting animals in zoos.
I Don’t Like Zoos Nor Circus’ Either. Those Poor Animals Go Through Such Abusive, And Inhumane Treatment! It’s SO VERY SAD! I Sign All The Petitions On The Terrible Abuse Of Animals As Well!
For anyone here asking about how to do more. FIRST – Go vegan. I don’t mean your diet,
i mean your lifestyle – don’t support animal exploitation in any of its forms. Not eating (flesh, dairy, eggs), not wearing (leather, fur, and more), not experimentation/vivisection (cruelty-free products), not entertainment (circuses, zoos, theme parks, film, sports like show-jumping, racing, etc.), pet trade (rescues/adopt, don’t support pet-shops, puppy and kitten mills, illegal wildlife trade, anything for money), THEN – when you’re living the example, when you’re walking the Talk, THEN… you’re being truth, and doing so much more than most. Then you’re BEAUTIFUL! XXXXXChildren can easily learn from documentaries about animals! Zoos are pitiful attempts of education and conservation! Keeping wild animals caged in abnormal environments is severe abuse, plain and simple!
Boycott zoos, circuses, animal racing of any form.
“Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That’s the problem.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh“People speak sometimes about the “bestial” cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky“You can judge a man’s true character by the way he treats his fellow animals.”
― Paul McCartney“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.”
― Alice Walker“Four legs good, two legs bad.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm“Animals don’t hate, and we’re supposed to be better than them.”
― Elvis Presley“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”
― Anatole France“To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being.”
― Mahatma GandhiYou are correct. It took me over 80 years to realize that zoos are cruel, unhappy places. My trip leader helped me to appreciate this after I told him that I used my free time to visit the Dresden Zoo.
As a child of the late 50s early 60s my parents took me to the Baltimore zoo a few times.
After the first visit to the great ape house, I refused to go in again because I felt too sorry for the gorilla alone in his concrete cage. Visiting the St. Louis Zoo in 2005 just to see if the “new” zoos were better I was saddened by the lone gorilla in his scraggly outdoor environment about 1/2 acre in size and situated so the people could look down into it.
A pit of despair came to mind. Other childhood memories included watching a fox circle madly in a tiled cage with a glass front approx. 3X3 foot square, watching a chimpanzee mother kill her baby by holding his feet and dashing his head on the concrete floor, because she did not get any of the junk food people were throwing into her enclosure.
I learned l lot from zoos, none of it good. At age 60 I can still see those animals.This is so wrong. Wild animals should be in their own habitat, if you would like to take your children to see animals, take them to a place where there is wild life in a park Like the Hluwhluwe wild Park or any other. How would you like to be kept in captivity all your years….think about it….
me too I would love to help and take action but how can we do to educate childrens in the right way? Boycotting is not enough, we must communicate again and again!
Help the Animals
I agree with Marie… 100%, I sign all the petitions as well but i want to do more!!!
I would like to take action, I feel boycotting zoos and circuses isn’t enough. Animals are still suffering, while I do nothing. I sign every petition I can but I’d like to do more. Any ideas?
I feel sad looking at animals in the zoo and won’t go cos they look so sad xx
I have never liked zoos or circuses, the animals are simply not looked after properly. To see a lion kept in a small cage or an elephant chained up is upsetting, & that is the least of what is done to them. Roslyn McBride – Australia
As a child I lived close by to a zoo in a major city park. We used to go there quite frequently and Initially we learned about the variety of animals that live on this earth with us. As we got older we also learned, and saw with our own eyes, that none of these animals were happy in their small dark cages, or small outdoor enclosures surrounded by bars. It didn’t take a guide at the zoo to teach me that. Even going to those so called humane zoos with large outdoor enclosures, I could observe wild animals acting abnormally and obviously suffering in their captive environment. None of these zoos offer any educational possibilities for children to learn about wild animals. They would be better off at a museum of natural history than visiting these animal prisons.
“A righteous man regards the life of animals” – PROVERBS 12:10; “If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion & pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men” – ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI; “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.” – MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.; “I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs…(They) are an obligation put on us, a responsibility we have no rights to neglect, nor to violate by cruelty….” – JAMES HARRIOT; “The greatness of a nation & its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” – MAHATMA GANDHI
Extremely well put, I couldn’t agree more with everything you have posted here!!
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FOX
animals were here BEFORE us and they have every right to be FREE in this world!!! they do not deserve to be caged!!!! let them live in their habitat PLEASE….. thank you