what do you think of zoos?
 

I got this idea from another forum I'm signed onto.
Personally I think they're good (the ones that try their best to stimulate the animals and are very large as opposed to the ones in which animals are kept in small cages), as they do help raise awareness of the state of some species and help endangered ones (captive breeding)

i used to go to this one just outside of winchester called Marwell all the time, it was great!!!!

now when i think of zoo's i think of this

i dislike zoo's. i am not against them completely but i went to an east german one years ago and what i saw there made me cry like a baby in the street outside. generally with the smaller animals i think its ok as their habitat would be the same size in the wild but the larger animals i think its cruel.

why cant zoo's be like the mighty boosh? that woud be ace.

I'm not exactly against them, but I avoid them because I always come out kinda depressed. I really don't think some of the animals mind their situation, but the primate exhibits and large marine animal exhibits always get me down.
Also, there was a polar bear who seemed particularly dejected that always got to me at a local zoo. I do think most people who work in zoos have a genuine love for their job and for animals though.

like most people have said.. im not exactly against them, for the reasons of 'helping out' endangered species, but the aspect of a tiny environment that they are confined to basically the entire length of there lives... upsetting. i was at the "Biosphere" in montréal this week, and it was neat because its 4 simulated environments where the animals are free to walk or fly or swim around (save for the little paths where humans roam to see these animals) freely. it's cool, one section is a rainforest environment, then next is laurentian forest, the next being a sort of ocean area.. and the final one is much smaller, only housing penguins and puffins, but its the arctic/antarctic. ...i really got off-topic there..

Animal Cruelty, Yet I Still Love Them.

how can a place which cares for species that are endangered. rears em, brings new life to em, helps them live happily and away from baiting and stuff like that be cruel???

zoos are not all like the concrete and rusted steel ones of eastern russia yknow. zoos have their place in the worlds ecological myre and furthermore, the kidz love em and its educational. dublin zoo used to be appalling but its great now.
last week a 19 yr old "thrillseeker" girl scaled 2 9 foot fences in order to pet and stroke a siberian tiger. she got mauled badly and almost lost an arm. the tiger is at the moment facing the bullet!!! its the fucking eejit of a girl that should be wiped off the face of the world..... dont reckon the tiger will pay for his natural instinct to be honest, they would be uproar.

That is stupidity on a Darwinian level.
"I made an extreme and prohibited effort to go near a highly territorial wild carnivore and it had the audacity to attack me! The nerve!"

why Darwinian?!

As in "nature weeding out the feeble-minded."

I think there is a system that zoos will sometimes send animals to other zoos for a period of time. I know it's like that for breeding purposes.

However, I agree with your point. For larger animals (most) zoos have large environments. The tiny ones are cruel, but only if the zookeepers don't give the animals activities to allow it to have fun. But who knows what animals think about being in zoos.

Of course I haven't been to one in a very long time.
I've always wanted to go back to the Toronto Zoo, that one was great (I always loved it as a kid). But here in Ottawa there is a rather small Zoo called the Papanack Zoo, which is about the size of a medium sized farm (it's a family owned zoo). It had somewhat small inclosures, but I don't think it had a large budget at that point (last time I went was many years ago). plus there's only a few species of animals they keep (about 30)

i remember one occasion of being at the toronto zoo. i was a kid, and i guess i enjoyed it. im sure i would come out feeling depressed nowadays just because i (don't know, but assume) the life, so mundane and repetitive, must be a shitty one at best... and yeah, fro breeding purposes they would move em around temporarily i guess.

I'd like a zoo which contains people dressed as animals, rather than actual animals.

The last time I went to the zoo I was 21. It was in London, expensive, and half of the exhibits were closed. ba baow.

I like it when the hippo-thing shitpisses on my wife.

good times

I'm not exactly super-versed in Zoo management but I'm too skeptical of the claim that zoos are necessarily abusive of animals. I think it's very possible to run a humane (I would prefer a less begging term) zoo, given that the zoo has the means to pursue that end.

Then again, this may be because I've been spoiled by the San Diego Zoo which is one of the largest and most progressive zoos in the world.

I will never grow tired of this picture from the local gorilla house.

the child attached to the pointing finger was very curious as to what the violently masturbating silverback was up to (he was up to about 4"s).


GRiLLA PrOn

I guess zoos are good. otherwise we may become unaware of how to treat certain species, and like you said survival of a species. More things to look at and experience, as opposed to other...

The seaside town I grew up in has a small zoo. I used to nip down there often with friends carrying a bag of fruit to feed the animals.

what do you think of zoos?

- they smell bad.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2...nt_9576759.htm

SHENYANG - A total of 11 Siberian tigers have died over the past 3 months in a zoo in northeast China's Liaoning Province, local animal protection officials said Thursday.

All the tigers were from Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in the provincial capital.

The tigers died due to malnutrition rather than infectious diseases, said Liu Xiaoqiang, vice chief of the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station.

The zoo only fed the tigers on cheap chicken bones since the zoo was not doing very well financially, Liu said.

Two hungry tigers from the zoo mauled a zoo worker in Nov, 2009. The worker was seriously injured but survived the attack.

The two tigers were shot dead in the rescue.

A total of 13 Siberian tigers have died in the zoo since Nov, 2009. The zoo has over 20 Siberian tigers left.

After the incident, Shenyang Administration of Work Safety asked the zoo to keep the tigers in cages, which further undermined their health, Liu said.

Since November, Shenyang Qipanshan Administration Committee has been providing the zoo with appropriate feed worth of 18,000 yuan ($2,636) a day. But many tigers already had intestinal infections or kidney failure caused by the lack of food and died later.

The number of tigers in the zoo has dropped by half in a decade, from 1,020 of 61 subspecies in 2000 to 518 of 49 subspecies in 2010.

The zoo is mainly privately owned with the Shenyang Municipal Government having 15 percent of the share.

"Many privately-owned zoos were under financial pressure, and most of them fail to feed the animals well," said Liu.

Another privately-owned zoo in Shenyang, Guaipo Tigers Zoo, has over 30 Siberian tigers. But in winter when tourists are scarce, it has to buy tiger feed on credit and pay the suppliers back in the peak of the tourist season.

As for regulating the privately-owned zoos, there were legal loopholes which made enforcement of the regulations impossible, said Liu.

"Wild Animal Protection Law" does not provide for any punishment for irresponsible zoo owners who abuse the animals.

In addition, "Property Law" stipulates that zoo owners have the right to keep animals and animal protection authorities have no right to interfere, said Liu.

The Siberian tiger, an engendered species, is a subspecies of tiger which once ranged throughout western, central Asia and eastern Russia. It is estimated that the number of wide Siberian tigers is now between 350 and 450 worldwide.

China has around 20 wild Siberian tigers, among which 10 to 14 are in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and eight to 10 are in its neighboring Jilin Province.

China established a breeding base for the Siberian tigers in Heilongjiang in 1986 and the number of captive tigers has increased from eight to more than 800 currently.

The global wild tiger population is estimated to be at an all-time low of 3,200, down from an estimated 20,000 in the 1980s and 100,000 a century ago.

i love the dc zoo and the large feline pit

also: the batcave-- awesome

they use to have pandas-- fuck them, oversized stuffed animals

i guess some are trying to re populate species and genuinely care for animals. i went to one in east germany and that put me off them for life.

if they where like this it would be great:

The polar bear always made me sad as well. The zoos in minneapolis are both pretty awful.

never meet a zoo I didn't like. Memphis Zoo is up there w/ my local Audubon Zoo, N.O. Both great. I went to the Memphis zoo in the summer and the landscaping was unbelievable.... seeing the pandas was a treat too

I won't disagree about some species looking dejected in their exhibits.... but maybe you don't understand that those animals, even if encountered in the wild are still like 99% lethargic and lazy, especially the big cats & bears.

If they were't there, they would be out in the wild.... or like the Polar Bears, out on cold, barren, blustery glaciers laying around..... looking dejected. They are more pampered and well fed there than they would be in nature. I know it goes against their nature to be caged and not have to fend for themselves, but I think they don't really care considering.

The Jacksonville Zoo is great. It is like Animal Kingdom in Disney only it costs $10 to get in versus $75. They really do a great job of making the habitats for the animals as natural as possible. I love the caves withe big glass windows on ground level so it is like you are standing there with the lions.

Zoos depress me. Like prison films. Cages as entertainment....