Personal Essay Example: My Views on Zoos

A zoo is an establishment designed to maintain wild animals typically in a garden or a park for the purpose of the study, display to the public or for the conservation of the species. Proponents of zoos believe that zoos are like prisons for animals and they are cruel and an unnatural means of keeping the animals. On the other hand, the opposers of zoos believe that zoos are necessary and can be used as a tool for educating the public on the welfare of the animals and hence are responsible for keeping the endangered species of animals out of the danger of becoming extinct. The matter of keeping animals in the zoo is one that has its advantages and disadvantages in equal measure as shall be expounded in the following essay.

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Animals in the zoo are most likely to be originating from the individuals forcibly taken from their families in their habitat. Naturally, many animals live in groupings of their kind. Monkeys, for instance, live in schools of several other similar monkeys occupying the same area of the forest and eating from the same area of the land. When a scientist needs to have a sample of the species they end up retrieving one of the members of the species, and this denies them the opportunity to live in peace with the rest of the members of the group. Animals, just like humans, need the company of one another to survive and therefore denying them the opportunity to live with one another is the same as taking away their natural habitat.

Animals that are captured and their offspring might never get the chance to live in the wild again. There is an element of unnaturalness in the animals that are captured and raised in the zoos. Wild animals are naturally adapted to living in the wild, and it is in the wilderness environment that they thrive best. Hence removing the animals from the wilderness does not guarantee that they will ever be returned to the wild. Ethically there are people that think about the profit of keeping the animals in the zoos more than the desire to protect them and keep them safe from the dangers of the rest of the world.

On the other side of the coin, zoos provide an opportunity for people to see the animals close and personal without the need to go into the jungle. Setting fees for seeing the animals provides the zoos with the revenue with which to keep the animals alive and well. In seeing the animals, they can appreciate the real value of keeping the animals alive and well. Some of the animals captured in the wild are normally found in dangerous situations that would otherwise cause harm to their lives, keeping the animals under controlled conditions is a better way to secure their lives and help them to live better lives.

To keep the animals in the zoo makes the monitoring of genetics easier and the study of the species better for new research beneficial to both the animals and human beings. It hence is not exploitation as such because it leads to better practices and knowledge about medicine and treatment. It is proven beyond doubts that the breed that is captured is more likely to succeed than the breed in the wild.