I used to love going to the zoo. I remember waking up early, packing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into a cooler, and making a road trip to the Minnesota Zoo. It would be sunny and hot, and I knew I would later regret wearing a sweatshirt. But my mom always made me bring one because “what happens if it gets cold?” My brothers were younger at the time so a stroller was always involved in the trip. We would spend the entire day at the zoo, looking at animals and taking pictures of their exhibits.
But now that I’ve gotten older, my stomach gets queasy thinking about all the pictures I’ve taken. I used to think it was so cool that these animals were so close to me and I could easily capture them with my phone. But now, I refuse to ever step foot into a zoo ever again.
I’m against the capturing of animals and taking them away from their natural habitats. Using animals as entertainment is wrong. It exploits them, violates their freedom and privacy, and withholds their needs. An animal should not be trapped inside a zoo if their lives would be more pleasant in the wild. And most of the time, that is the case. It keeps them from doing what they’re supposed to do; running, climbing, roaming, flying, foraging, and choosing a partner. There’s little investment in their care. A zebra nearly escaped death when jumping into a lion’s exhibit. Ten prairie dogs died when their tunnels collapsed. Two polar bears died; Churchill swallowed an object that was thrown into his exhibit and Penny died because of an infection due to carrying two dead fetuses in her uterus. And a rhinoceros drowned in its own moat. But these aren’t the only cases that expose zoos for their poor care.
What’s most frustrating is that zoos still gain business and money. Even though countless employees have quit their jobs at countless zoos because of their blatant disgust for how the animals were treated, there will always be more employees hired in their place. And even though these employees recognize these horrible things, they continue to look the other way. No one is helping these animals. By building zoos and supporting them, we are supporting the idea that humans deserve more rights than animals. That we prioritize entertainment over sustainability.
Zoos also claim that they’re not only protecting animals, but they’re providing education. But, one, how could you possibly be protecting them if you are capturing them and removing them from their family and home? And, two, visitors rarely spend more than a couple minutes at each exhibit. Even if they did, there’s not enough information given about each animal to truly learn about them. And since the animals act differently when they’re in zoos than in the wild, you can’t learn about them visually. This is how we know that zoos have little interest in educating the public and every intention on traumatizing animals for the public’s entertainment. They’re even pressuring the federal government to weaken the Endangered Species Act so it will be easier to capture animals.
Because zoos are so fervent when it comes to doing whatever it takes to gain publicity, business, and money, they know what animals they need and don’t need to keep the money rolling on in. Baby animals are very popular. Adults, not so much. Zoos will trade, sell, and rent animals to other zoos for the money. A chimpanzee named Edith was a victim of this exact act. She was born at the Saint Louis Zoo in the 1960s and after her third birthday, she was removed from her family. She was passed around to and from at least five different facilities until she landed at a roadside zoo in Texas called Amarillo Wildlife Refuge (AWR). During an undercover investigation of AWR, PETA found Edith in a filthy, barren concrete pit. She was hairless and had been surviving off rotten produce and dog food.
It’s truly disgusting that these poor creatures are tormented and traumatized in order to please humans. The thought of going to a zoo and watching, pointing, and laughing at the animals makes me want to hurl. When I was younger, I never took into consideration what they were feeling when I took their picture when there was nowhere for them to run and hide if they chose. I imagine myself sitting in a room with walls of glass and having hundreds of people taking pictures of me, giggling and pointing at everything I do, and having nowhere to run and hide if I so chose.
I also hate Seaworld, with a fiery passion. I’m sure you’ve seen that picture of the map of what SeaWorld looks like from outside. The parking lot size versus the size of the orca tank. But SeaWorld has a dirty past that no one seems to care about enough to truly do something about it.
An orca named Shamu was put in the first-ever SeaWorld show in 1965. She was kidnapped from her mother and, during her capture, killed her with a harpoon. Shamu died six years later but other orcas with her name were forced to perform in her place. The public had no knowledge of this. In 1983, twelve dolphins were captured from their home waters in Chile to be put on display at SeaWorld. Half of them died within six months. SeaWorld separated two bonded polar bears who were together for about 20 years, Szenja and Snowflake. Szenja was left alone, not being able to interact with members of her own species. She died two months later, likely from a broken heart.
A dolphin named Ringer was impregnated by her own father. She had several babies, all of whom have died. Nanuq, a beluga whale, was abducted as an artificial insemination experiment at SeaWorld. He was removed from the water over 40 times to have sperm collected. All of his babies eventually died. Nanug died after his jaw was shattered. SeaWorld masturbated Tilikum, an orca, over and over, forcibly impregnating female orcas with his sperm. He’s the biological father of more than half of the orcas at SeaWorld. More than half of his children have died. Tilikum finally died after living at SeaWorld for 33 miserable years. And, in order to keep orcas’ worn and broken teeth from being infected, employees drill out the inside of their teeth, usually without any anesthetics or painkillers. This happens daily. This is still happening ‘til this day.
Along with whales and orcas, sharks and rays are popular attractions at SeaWorld. Sharks are too sensitive to be imprisoned in a small tank at a park where children and adults annoy them all day. Sharks also need space. Some of them have to constantly be moving in order to breathe, which forces them to swim in circles all day long for the rest of their lives, while also sustaining injuries from rubbing their noses against the wall. Imagine having to walk around your house all day long, for years and years until you eventually die. That’s what sharks do at SeaWorld.
Marine parks can literally mean death for sharks and rays. Humans, as hard as we may try, do not understand an animal’s needs more than the animal itself. That’s why when we start to capture them and bring them to aquariums and zoos, they could die due to humanly mistakes. By removing animals from their natural habitat, we become responsible for their well-being. At SeaWorld, sixteen sharks died after workers waited too long to shut off the water being pumped from Mission Bay into the aquariums. Something similar happened at a Texas aquarium. Hundreds of fish and a tiger shark died when workers added medicine to the tanks, thinking that would fight parasites. See, humans don’t know better than the animals themselves when it comes to taking care of them.
Sharks are also extremely naturally shy, so encouraging strange and boisterous children and adults to invade their personal space can unsettle them. It’s unfair for the animals at SeaWorld. Again, they can’t swim away and hide from the noisy visitors. It’s like screaming at the top of your lungs while a baby is already crying. It’s unfair for them to make things worse by adding hundreds of eyes on them. It’s disgusting, actually.
There are things you can do and ways you can help. You can donate to trustworthy wildlife centers that truly want to help animals thrive in their own natural habitat. You can adopt an animal, this gives them the resources and care that they need. And lastly, please don’t go to zoos, aquariums, and SeaWorld (the mother of all evil).
SOURCES