It’s that time of year again when every other couple goes to the zoo to take pictures in front of different light fixtures the zoo sets up around their park. While the festive lights are fun, I think it is important to note that the lights are at a zoo, and zoos may not always be the best places to show support for.
I wanted to highlight some pros and cons to maybe help you decide whether going to a zoo for some holiday pictures will be worth it or not. So let’s start with the pros. First of all, zoos are educational. Zoos offer an abundance of information on the animals in their enclosures, which helps people to learn about those creatures. Zoos are also great because they allow people to see animals in-person when they would likely never be seen otherwise. Another benefit of the zoos is they help species that are close to extinction by keeping them in enclosures. And finally, zoos offer an economic resource for their communities. For example, the Toledo Zoo offers many jobs to people in the area. The Toledo Zoo is also a great spot for tourists, which creates revenue for the entire community.
Now, let’s get down to the cons of zoos. The first con I would like to point out is when you pay to enter a zoo, you are contributing to keeping an animal in captivity. Many animals thrive perfectly fine in captivity; however, they obviously have to be taken care of specifically, and sometimes zoos do not meet those standards. For example, some animals need companionship or they will become stressed. Another example would be orca whales. Most zoos do not house orca whales, but places like Seaworld keep the whales in very small enclosures, which will eventually lead to incredibly short and miserable lifespans for their sea life. According to an article from Science Magazine, omnivores are the animals that suffer the most in enclosures, simply because these animals would experience more space out in the wild than any zoo could ever offer them.
My next con leads to the fact that many zoos seem to be more focused on what will bring in tourists, rather than focusing on the actual animals. The Business Journal wrote an article about the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle a few years ago, describing how the zoo should have retired two of its elephants to an enclosure, but instead, they relocated them to a different zoo, supposedly because of finances. The Woodland Park Zoo is known as one of the best zoos in the country, yet finances may have come before its two elephants. If one of the best zoos in the country treats its elephants like this, it leaves the question of how other zoos are treating their animals.
On the topic of elephants, this leads me to my final con: enclosure space. Elephants are known to walk at least 15 miles every day in their natural habitats, but it is nearly impossible for any zoo to provide that kind of space to the animals. When certain animals, such as elephants, feel caged away, they become aggressive, which can be dangerous in any zoo setting, especially toward employees who are taking care of the elephants.
Overall, zoos are both good and bad, so if you decide to travel to one of these attractions in the future, maybe aim to keep your zoo trip to just once a year, rather than multiple times. This way, you are still having fun but not in an extensively harmful way.
