this is me when i was 18 years old at
amsterdam zoo throughout my childhood
and teenage years no day out filled me
with more excitement and joy than
visiting a zoo but as i learned later it
turns out that zoos are actually not
happy places for animals let me explain
why
the term psychosis refers to a
psychological condition in which animals
kept in captivity begin to display
highly repetitive behaviors such as
pacing and circling
neck twisting head bobbing weaving and
swaying rocking back and forth
over-grooming and self-mutilation as
well as self-induced vomiting and
playing with excrement
[Music]
the problem is animals have evolved
physically and behaviorally over
thousands of years to become
specifically adapted to their natural
habitat however captivity is nothing
like life in the wild animals in
captivity have no freedom no autonomy
and no agency their environment is
forced upon them
social interactions and circumstances
are forced upon them they have to
continuously be in the presence of
humans who may be loud who may bang on
their enclosures who may point at them
or in the case of a tiger at london zoo
may have beer poured on them by a drunk
visitor and to top it all off they have
no means of escape they are literally
trapped in these enclosures their entire
lives and if they do escape they are
often shot and killed as was the case
for two chimpanzees who were shot at a
dutch zoo in november
the psychological impact of zoos is even
acknowledged by the zoos themselves with
antidepressant and antipsychotic
medicine use being well documented in
zoos in fact a survey of every zoo in
the us and canada that housed gorillas
revealed that half admitted giving
pharmaceutical drugs such as xanax
valium and prozac to the gorillas the
same kinds of drugs have also been given
to other species including bears
chimpanzees zebras wildebeests and
orangutans and also penguins in the uk
in the case of a female gorilla called
yahari who continuously resisted mating
with the male the zoo had placed her
with the zoo drugged her with prozac so
that she became unable to fend off the
mail it's also difficult to fully know
the true scale of the problem as laurel
breitman the author of a book called
animal madness puts it at every zoo
where i spoke to someone a
psychopharmaceutical
had been tried clearly something is
wrong here even if we just think about
dogs we view people who keep dogs locked
up or who don't take them outside for
walks to be dog abusers yet we lock up
wild animals and confine them for their
entire lives but don't consider that to
be abuse elephants are a notable example
in the wild they walk up to 50 miles a
day yet in zoos these social and
cognitively complex animals are confined
in enclosed spaces where they can suffer
from arthritis and joint pain a study on
african elephants showed that the
average lifespan of african elephants in
european zoos is less than 17 years
which is less than half the average
lifespan of african elephants who were
killed by poachers in the wild and when
the study looked at african elephants
not affected by poaching their average
lifespan was 56 years in the wild or
more than three times as long as those
kept in european zoos in other words our
enjoyment at zoos comes at the expense
of the sanity and well-being of the
animals confined within them
zoos have presented themselves as being
essential to the conservation of
endangered species but is that really
the case there have been some cases of
reintroduction of wild species using zoo
animals as was the case with the arabian
oryx however these examples are few and
far between and don't justify the
confinement of every other animal
species in zoos after all the captivity
of elephants lions dolphins and bears
had no bearing on the success of the
arabian oryx reintroduction and if we
just consider that the majority of
successful reintroduction programs are
carried out by government agencies and
not zoos anyway then it becomes clear
that the successful reintroductions only
required targeted breeding programs for
the critically endangered species that
needed saving
not the existence of zeus and it only
goes downhill from here back in 2014 the
world looked on in horror as a perfectly
healthy giraffe called marius was shot
to death at copenhagen zoo we all want
to teach our children about the cycle of
life and death in the animal world but
copenhagen zoo may have taken this
philosophy a little bit too far by
putting down a perfectly healthy
two-year-old giraffe called marius
dismembering him in front of school
children
and then feeding him to the lions
this giraffe walked out here at quarter
past nine it was let out into its yard
over there then there was a zookeeper
with some rye bread it really likes rye
bread and he said here you go marius
here's some rye bread i stood behind
with a rifle and when he put his head
forward and ate the rye bread then i
shot him through the brain and he wasn't
shot because he posed a threat to human
life he was shot because he was
considered surplus in other words there
were more giraffes at the zoo than the
zoo wanted a few weeks later the same
zoo then killed four lions including two
cubs all because they wanted to make
space for a new male lion they wanted to
use for breeding and this practice of
killing healthy animals is not specific
to just copenhagen zoo in fact it is
estimated that every year between three
and five thousand animals are killed by
humans in european zoos that are members
of the european association of zoos and
aquariums which is the organization that
operates the european endangered species
program for perspective the eaza only
represents eight percent of all zoos in
europe so one can only imagine how many
animals could be killed in the other 92
percent of zoos and it's not just
healthy giraffes and lions that are
killed leopards bears tigers hippos lynx
elephants and many other species have
all been killed even though they were
healthy but why are zoos doing this if
their intentions are to help with the
conservation of endangered species this
problem mainly arises because of the
captive breeding programs that take
place in zoos so if an animal becomes
too old to be used for breeding doesn't
have desirable genes or is taking up
space from an animal that would be more
profitable for the zoo they are seen as
disposable and not only a healthy animal
has been killed ensues but other healthy
animals are being taken from the wild in
2016 18 african elephants were captured
from the wild and brought to zoos in the
us dan ash who at that time was the
director of the united states fish and
wildlife service which is the
organization that approved the capturing
of the elephants is now the president
and ceo of the association of zoos and
aquariums an organization whose members
include those who received the wild
caught elephants and state on their
website that visitors can trust their
aza accredited zoos and aquariums are
working hard to protect wildlife and
wild habitat for future generations to
enjoy but how exactly by capturing
animals from the wild and locking them
up in zoos where they have lower life
expectancies ironically the reason why
elephants continue to be captured from
the wild is because the captive breeding
of elephants is so notoriously difficult
with low birth rates and even when
births are successful there are problems
with high rates of stillbirths calf
rejection and infanticide a disturbing
and highly unusual behavior for
elephants in fact captive elephant
populations are actually in decline it's
estimated that for every new birth in
captivity two captive elephants die and
that the infant mortality rate for
elephants in zoos is nearly three times
what it is in the wild in other words
rather than wild elephants relying on
captive elephants to sustain their
population numbers captive elephants are
instead reliant on wild elephants to
sustain their population numbers the
international union for conservation of
nature which is the organization that
keeps track of the conservation status
of animals more comprehensively than any
other state that they do not endorse the
removal of african elephants from the
wild for any captive use and beyond all
of this it would be impossible to take
many species of animals from zoos and
place them into the wild because they
would not be equipped to survive there
plus because of the decades of
inbreeding the animals can have wrong
genetic profiles and be diseased meaning
that mixing these captive animals with
wild animals from the same species could
weaken the genetics of the wild
populations in the case of london zoo a
study showed that two out of three lying
cubs born there die because of the
amount of inbreeding that has taken
place as one of the authors of the study
put it there are situations where
they've bred the grandfathers with the
granddaughters this shows that the
concept that zoos are conservation tools
is completely false this research blows
that idea apart furthermore it's
estimated that 70 to 75 percent of
species kept at european zoos and not
threatened in the wild and only five
percent of mammals kept at the zoos are
considered critically endangered many of
which are not able to be introduced into
the wild anyway for the reasons just
noted so what are the conservation
benefits of keeping animals that can't
be introduced into the wild and the vast
majority of which are not endangered in
the first place zoos would argue that
they donate money to conservation
efforts however the association of zoos
and aquariums state that they have 200
million visitors a year to their
accredited zoos and donate 160 million
dollars a year to wildlife conservation
this means that just 80 cents from every
visitor is donated to wildlife
conservation in the uk the british and
irish association of zoos and aquariums
state that they welcome 35 million
visitors to their zoos each year with 24
million pounds being spent on
conservation per year which means that
less than 70 pence per visitor is spent
on conservation and this doesn't take
into consideration the money spent in
the zoo on food drinks and merchandise
from the zoo shops in other words
donating one dollar or one pound to a
conservation organization would
contribute more funds to wildlife
conservation than visiting a zoo and it
doesn't involve subjecting wild animals
to a life in captivity and all the
problems that causes when london zoo
spent 5.3 million pounds on a new
gorilla enclosure the chief consultant
to the un great apes survival
partnership said 5 million pounds for
free gorillas when national parks are
seeing that number killed every day for
want of some land rovers and trained men
and anti-poaching patrols it must be
very frustrating for the warden of a
national park to see and if we put this
point further into perspective chester
zoo in the uk had an income of 47.4
million pounds in 2019 which
incidentally is about the same amount as
the annual budget for the kenya wildlife
service the kenya wildlife service
manages 27 national parks 32 national
reserves and four national sanctuaries
four marine national parks and six
marine national reserves in just one of
their national parks there are 1600
elephants and more than 100 lions as
well as over 50 other mammal species for
reference there are six elephants and
three lions at chester zoo because of
kenya wildlife services anti-poaching
work there has been a 12
increase in the number of elephants
rhinos lions giraffes zebras and
antelopes since 2014 so the income of
just one of the more than 300 licensed
zoos in the uk could fund the annual
budget of kenya wildlife service a great
day's in store for everyone come to
chester zoo and see
zoos also argue that they serve to
educate the public and inspire people to
care about the conservation of the
animals they see in zoos but people have
never seen a humpback whale or a blue
whale in captivity and yet feel no less
strongly about their protection than the
animals they see in zoos when it comes
to conservation education nature
documentaries can do that job without
confining animals paul boyle the senior
vice president for conservation and
education at the association of zoos and
aquariums said it best himself when he
stated people leave their homes and the
intent is not to save animals in africa
it's to have a family outing at the end
of the day zoos are not built with the
animal's best interest in mind no matter
how they spin it the point of a zoo is
to confine animals for human
entertainment and profit
if we truly want to help animals while
keeping their best interest in mind
we're better off doing things like
watching nature documentaries supporting
wildlife sanctuaries and conservation
organizations and visiting state and
national parks
you