Zoos
Tiger Killed at Zoo: When a rare Sumatran
tigress was shot four times with a shot gun while trying to escape a zoo
recently the media wanted to know what we thought about it. The question
in the mind of the press was, “Should this cat have been killed or
was there a better solution?” To me that question pales beside
the far more important question, “Why are these cats in captivity at
all?”
I think the answer lies partly in ignorance and greatly in apathy. Zoos have done a good job of marketing themselves as the arks of the future, but that is an antiquated notion. We have huge data banks of endangered species’ frozen DNA for the day when we all create the Nirvana that would be necessary to sustain both human and wild animal life. We don’t have to breed generation after generation of animals for lives of deprivation in order to insure that there will be animals around for that uncertain future.
As science is exposing the fact that we share many, if not all of the same emotions, we have to rethink the ethics of caging an animal for our own purposes. One of our board members, who once worked in the zoo industry, said it as eloquently as I have ever heard it said, “When we cage an animal we steal the only thing they have; their free will.”
Anyone who has watched an animal languish in a cage knows this to be true. The sad thing is that so few have done anything about it. If not now, When? If not you, Who? Speak up HERE
To see the way most zoo animals live when they are not on exhibit, which is more than half of their lives, go HERE
Sign our petition to stop the use of big cats in zoos and other abuses HERE
Study finds zoo visitors spend little time viewing animals
even nearly extinct species
Published on Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Kansas State Collegian
Zoos tout their educational endeavors, but like the person who visits Sunset Zoological Park to "get out of the house," zoos are little more than easy distraction. Dale Marcellini, a curator at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., conducted a study of zoo visitors in which he and several colleagues watched, tracked and listened to more than 700 people over the course of a few summers.
His study concluded that zoos are little more than backdrops for people's other preoccupations. The visitors' conversations dealt not with the animals but with their own lives. When people did remark on an animal, the most common words Marcellini recorded were derogatory.
The study found that almost 60 percent of visitors' time was spent walking from place to place, almost 10 percent was spent eating, and other chunks of time went to resting, bathroom breaks and shopping.
People spent less than eight seconds per snake and one minute with the lions. Pere David's deer, expected to be extinct when the last captive deer dies, rated a mere 27 seconds.
It's not just visitors who are disinterested. Even a former director of the renowned Zoo Atlanta, for example, said of the animals, "They're the last thing I worry about with all the other problems."
Jennifer O'Connor
http://kstatecollegian.com/article.php?a=9994
The video below is very disturbing and not intented for young audiences. The clips show lions and tigers fighting and a number of other situations where captive cats are mauling and killing each other. The reason it is posted here is to demonstrate that it is man who is responsible in almost every scene for the injuries and deaths of these magnificent creatures. For the most part, lions and tigers do not live on the same continents, so even the scenes that look as if they were filmed in the wild are obviously staged by humans. Most of the scenes are obviously in zoos and circuses where great cats are made to interact in unnatural ways that causes them a tremendous amount of stress and injury. You can put an end to this sort of abuse by asking for better laws to protect the animals at www.CatLaws.com
You may have to click > twice to play video clip
Zoos vs. Real Sanctuaries
(a real sanctuary would meet these standards)
Re: Tigers
Breeding tigers in the U.S. that have no hope of ever being returned to the wild is done to attract a paying public and not for the greater good of the animal. It is a business and a dying one at that. Most tigers in zoos only live to be 10. Most tigers in accredited sanctuaries live twice as long.
Why is that?
In zoos the tigers are forced to be out on display. When people pay to come to the zoo they expect to see the tigers.
In zoos the tigers are shipped all over the place to meet the criteria of the species survival plan and thus never have a feeling of permanence or safety.
In zoos the turn over in employees is 2 years. In sanctuaries it is twice that in general and far longer in many cases. The tigers know and trust their keepers in sanctuaries.
In zoos the cats are anesthetized annually and teeth checked, blood drawn, x-rays etc. 
This sounds like a good practice, but anesthesia is extremely hard on exotic cats. In accredited sanctuaries we know that this is very harmful so we rely on operant conditioning to coax the cats into opening their mouths for us so we can see their teeth, standing close to the cage wire so that we can administer fluids or shots when needed and even allowing us to take their tails through the fence if blood must be drawn. It is a lot of extra work, but the longevity of sanctuary tigers says something about its effectiveness.
In zoos they feed a ground up processed meat (often still frozen) that is often loaded with preservatives. This is done because it is easy to store, easy to feed and nothing to clean up. In better sanctuaries tigers are fed chunks of meat, bone and hide so that they can enjoy their food and clean their teeth and have better digestive cleaning.
In zoos the big attraction is baby tigers so tigers are bred to death and if they are not allowed to breed, then they are on cancer causing birth control. Far more tigers are bred in zoos than the SSP suggests because zoos don't have to comply and often don't. These cubs are not needed in the plan and are sold out the back door to brokers who send them to roadside zoos, backyard breeders and canned hunts. It is illegal to shoot a tiger but the main animals sent to these canned hunts are the cute baby hoofstock from the zoos. Those are legal and the hunt operators then sell the right to kill more endangered species to their trusted clients. There is a bill in the house and senate now to try and stop them. http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alertid=7471356&type=CO
In zoos the public wants to see the big cats moving around, so frequently a zoo will own several of the big cats who live in tiny cages in the back or in the basement for most of their lives and then are rotated through the exhibit a day at a time to keep the public happy. In zoos their cages are measured in square feet. In the wild an Amur or Siberian Tiger would roam and protect up to 400 (yes, four hundred) square miles of territory. Life in any cage is no comparison.
In zoos people come and turn their screaming, howling children loose and let them do whatever they want. It is a big playground that has been made child-proof from years of failed litigation. There is very little, if any, learning going on. There is no respect for animals being taught. There is no real conservation effort being funded in any big way. Zoos will often argue that people will only save what they care about and that is true, but the typical zoo format doesn't teach that sense of responsibility or caring.
Don't get me wrong, tigers don't belong in sanctuaries either. My goal is to put ourselves out of business by causing people to think about their choices so that there no longer is a need for a safe haven. You have the power of the pocketbook; something the animals do not. You can speak out for them with the choices you make economically. Please don't support any place that breeds big cats for life in a cage.
These generalizations are just that, and all zoos cannot be compared to all sanctuaries as there are both good and bad in any given situation. The purpose here is to illustrate two very different idealogies regarding animals in captivity. These generalizations are based upon the majority of establishments represented. To find out how your local zoo fares, ask the tough questions and insist on proof of what happens to animals when they are no longer on display, how old they are and how they are kept when you aren't there. You are supporting them and have the right to know. View this slideshow to see what life is really like for captive exotic cats. Play Slideshow.
Zoos: Pitiful Prisons
Despite their professed concern for animals, zoos can more accurately be described as “collections” of interesting “specimens” than actual havens or simulated habitats (real homes). Zoos teach people that it is acceptable to interfere with animals and keep them locked up in captivity where they are bored, cramped, lonely, deprived of all control over their lives, and far from their natural homes.
Virginia McKenna, who starred in the classic movie Born Free and received an Order of the British Empire in 2003 for her work in behalf of captive animals, says that her participation in Born Free made her realize that “wild animals belonged in the wild, not imprisoned in zoos. … Freedom is a precious concept, and wild animals suffer physically and mentally from the lack of freedom captivity imposes.”(1)
Cost-Cutting Hurts Animals
Zoos vary in size and quality—from drive-through parks to small roadside menageries with concrete slabs and iron bars. Although more than 135 million people visit zoos in the United States and Canada every year, most zoos operate at a loss and must find ways to cut costs or add gimmicks that will attract visitors.(2) The Wall Street Journal reported that “nearly half of the country’s zoos are facing cutbacks this year … [a]ttendance, meanwhile, is down about 3% nationwide.”(3)
Ultimately, animals are the ones who pay the price. Precious funds that should be used to provide more humane conditions for animals are often squandered on cosmetic improvements, such as landscaping or visitor centers, in order to draw visitors.
Animals suffer from more than neglect in some zoos. Rose-Tu, an elephant at the Oregon Zoo, suffered “176 gashes and cuts” inflicted by a zoo handler wielding a sharp metal rod.4 Another elephant, Sissy, was beaten with an ax handle at the El Paso Zoo.(5)
Propagation, Not Education
Zoos claim to educate people and preserve species, but they usually fall short on both counts. Most zoo enclosures are very small, and rather than promoting respect or understanding of animals, signs often provide little more information than an animal’s species, diet, and natural range. Animals’ normal behavior is seldom discussed, much less observed, because their natural needs are rarely met. Birds’ wings may be clipped so that they cannot fly, aquatic animals are often without adequate little water, and many animals who live in large herds or family groups in nature are kept alone or, at most, in pairs. Natural hunting and mating behaviors are virtually eliminated by regulated feeding and breeding regimens. Animals are closely confined, lack privacy, and have little opportunity for mental stimulation or physical exercise. These conditions often result in abnormal and self-destructive behaviors or “zoochosis.”
An Oxford University study based on four decades of observing animals in captivity and in the wild found that animals such as polar bears, lions, tigers, and cheetahs “show the most evidence of stress and/or psychological dysfunction in captivity” and concluded that “the keeping of naturally wide-ranging carnivores should be either fundamentally improved or phased out.”(6,7) A PETA investigation of numerous zoos across the country found that several bear species, including sun, grizzly, Kodiak, spectacled, black, and sloth bears, were exhibiting neurotic, stereotypic behaviors. These frustrated animals spend much of their time pacing, walking in tight circles, swaying or rolling their heads, and showing other signs of psychological distress. In some bear enclosures, paths worn by the bears’ constant pacing can be seen; in others, there are actual paw impressions in the soil where bears have repeatedly stepped in the same spot. These behaviors are not just symptoms of boredom, they indicate profound despondency.
As for the claim that zoos provide educational opportunities—consider that most visitors spend only a few minutes at each display, seeking entertainment rather than enlightenment. Over the course of five summers, a curator at the National Zoo followed more than 700 zoo visitors and found that “it didn’t matter what was on display … people [were] treating the exhibits like wallpaper.” He determined that “officials should stop kidding themselves about the tremendous educational value of showing an animal behind a glass wall.”(8)
The purpose of most zoos’ research is to find ways to breed and maintain more animals in captivity. If zoos ceased to exist, so would the “need” for most of their research. Protecting species from extinction sounds like a noble goal, but zoo officials usually favor exotic or popular animals who draw crowds and publicity rather than threatened or endangered local wildlife. The Chinese government, for example, “rents” pandas to zoos worldwide for fees of more than $1 million per year, but some question whether the profits are being directed toward panda-conservation efforts at all.(9)
Most animals housed in zoos are neither endangered nor being prepared for release into natural habitats.
Born Free, Sold Out
Zoos continue to capture animals from the wild to put them on public display. In 2003, the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Lowry Park Zoo captured 11 African elephants, a species designated as threatened, from their natural habitats in Swaziland. Experts, scientists, and researchers who study elephants in the wild strongly opposed the capture, stating, “Taking elephants from the wild is not only traumatic for them, it is also detrimental to their health. ... [W]e believe the time has come to consider them as sentient beings and not as so much money on the hoof to be captured and sold and displayed for our own use.”(10)
Zoos are also pressuring the federal government to weaken the Endangered Species Act to make it easier for them to capture and import animals who are on the brink of extinction.
When Cute Little Babies Grow Up
Zoo babies are crowd-pleasers, but when they get older and attract fewer visitors, many are sold or killed by zoos. Deer, tigers, lions, and other animals who breed frequently are sometimes sold to “game” farms where hunters pay for the “privilege” of killing them; others are killed for their meat and/or hides. Other “surplus” animals may be sold to circuses or smaller, more poorly run zoos.
A chimpanzee named Edith is one example of a discarded zoo baby who fell into the wrong hands. Born in the 1960s at the Saint Louis Zoo, baby Edith was surely an adorable sight for visitors. But just after her third birthday, she was taken from her family and passed around to at least five different facilities, finally landing at a Texas roadside zoo called the 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 living on rotten produce and dog food. For more information on this investigation, please visit WildlifePimps.com.
Another example involves Twiggs and Jeffrey, two giraffes born at the Cape May County Zoo. When they got older, they were sold by the zoo to a broker who subsequently sold them to a traveling circus.(11) The director of the Cape May County Zoo actually admitted to seeing the animals’ pitiful living conditions in the circus but did not have a problem with the situation.
Zoos across the country sold animals to the now-closed New Braunfels Zoo and continued to do so even after one of its owners “quit in disgust at the animal neglect.”(12) The director of an Arizona zoo sold several exotic goats to a dealer who was known to supply animals to trophy-hunting ranches.(13)
Beyond Zoos
Ultimately, we will only save endangered species by preserving their habitats and combating the reasons why they are killed by people. Instead of supporting zoos, we should support groups like the International Primate Protection League, the Born Free Foundation, the African Wildlife Foundation, and other groups that work to preserve habitats. We should help nonprofit sanctuaries that are accredited by The Association of Sanctuaries, such as the Elephant Sanctuary and the Performing Animal Welfare Society. These sanctuaries rescue and care for exotic animals without selling or breeding them.
With all the informative television programming, our access to the Internet, and the relative ease of international travel, learning about or viewing animals in their natural habitats can be as simple as a flick of a switch or a hike up a mountain. The idea of keeping animals confined behind cage bars is obsolete.
What You Can Do
After recognizing that zoos cannot adequately provide for the complex needs of elephants, several zoos have made the decision to close their elephant exhibits, setting a positive precedent for zoos worldwide. The Detroit Zoo sent two elephants to a sanctuary because in the words of the zoo’s director, “Just as polar bears don’t thrive in hot climates, Asian elephants should not live in small groups without many acres to roam. They clearly shouldn’t have to suffer winters of the North.”(14) Please visit SaveWildElephants.com for more information on zoos that have closed their elephant exhibits.
The Baltimore Zoo, Detroit Zoo, Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, North Carolina Zoo, and others have taken in polar bears who were rescued from a traveling tropical circus, but progressive zoos like these are the exception rather than the rule.
Zoos are covered by the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which sets minimal housing and maintenance standards for captive animals. The AWA requires that all animal displays be licensed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which must inspect zoos once a year. However, some zoos that have passed USDA inspections with flying colors have later been found by humane groups to have numerous violations. Read Beyond the Bars edited by Virginia McKenna, Will Travers, and Jonathan Wray, for more information.
Never patronize a zoo unless you are doing so to monitor the animals as part of your zoo campaign. Contact PETA for ZooCheck materials.
Encourage your local zoo to stop breeding animals and make space available for animals in need. Report poor conditions to the USDA, leaflet at the zoo, write letters to the editor, and pressure local officials to avoid subsidizing the zoo with taxpayer money.
References
(1) “Born Free Star McKenna Honoured,” BBC News, 31 Dec. 2003.
(2) Michael Satchell, “Cruel and Usual: How Some of America’s Best Zoos Get Rid of Their Old, Infirm, and Unwanted Animals,” U.S. News and World Report, 5 Aug. 2002
(3) Brooks Barnes, “Outings: A Bear Market for Zoos,” The Wall Street Journal, 30 May 2003.
(4) R. Gregory Nokes, “Groups Urge Harsh Federal Penalties on Zoo,” The Oregonian, 15 Nov. 2000.
(5) “Animal Activists Get Wish as Abused Elephant Is Moving to New Home in Tennessee,” Associated Press, 25 Jan. 2000.
(6) Mark Derr, “Big Beasts, Tight Space and a Call for Change in Journal Report,” The New York Times, 2 Oct. 2003.
(7) Ros Clubb and Georgia Mason, “Captivity Effects on Wide-Ranging Carnivores,” Nature, 2 Oct. 2003.
(8) William Booth, “ Naked Ape New Zoo Attraction; Surprise Results From People-Watching Study,” The Washington Post, 14 Mar. 1991.
(9) “Critics Question China’s Worldwide Panda Profit,” The Age, 5 Apr. 2003.
(10) Amboseli Elephant Research Project, letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 24 Jun. 2003.
(11) Amy S. Rosenberg, “What Kind of Life Do Giraffes Prefer? Irascible at the Cape May Count Zoo, Happy in the Circus,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 5 Aug. 2001.
(12) Satchell.
(13) Satchell.
(14) Detroit Zoological Institute, “ Detroit Zoo Intends to Send Elephants to Elephant Sanctuary,” PR Newswire, 20 May 2004.
Souce of the above: PeTA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.