Essay on ‘Animals should not be kept in zoos’

This is a one thousand word essay for kids on the subject “animals should not be kept in zoos”. There are many ways to write this essay so the thoughts here are personal. Zoos are quite controversial. Anyone can use the essay if they wish. In the essay I use the word ‘conservation’. If you read an essay on conservation it may help explain what it means.

The animals that we see in zoos are wild animals. They were created to live in wild, natural places. In these wild places there is lots of space for an animal to hunt and live naturally. A famous wild animal is the tiger. In Russia, a tiger lives in a space that is about 80 miles by 80 miles or 640 square miles. Now put that tiger in a cage that is 30 feet by 30 feet. How do you think he feels? That is one very good reason why tigers should not be in zoos.

It is not just about tigers, though. Many other animals in zoos live in very small spaces compared to the space that they have in the wild. This can make the animal stressed and unhappy. It is not just about space. Zoo animals often cannot behave naturally. How can a tiger hunt its prey in a zoo? If you were not allowed to do the things you like to do for the rest of your life, how would you feel?

Zoos are for entertaining people. The people who own zoos say that they are also for ‘conservation’. What they mean is that zoos help to stop wild animals dying out in the wild. The trouble is that often zoos do not help in conservation. If fact some people say that they make things worse.

One reason why zoos make things worse for wild animals is because they are being used in zoos for our entertainment. This means that we are more likely to regard animals as creatures to entertain us. If we have that idea in our heads it is more likely that animals will die out in the wild. This is because it encourages people to use animals rather than to respect them for what they are and to let them live their lives naturally in places where they are meant to live.

Kids will say that zoos are good fun. Kids can learn about animals at zoos. This is good but kids also learn that animals and zoos go together when they don’t. Animals are not meant to be in zoos. Kids could still learn about animals in other ways which were kinder to animals, if zoos did not exist.

Another reason why animals should not be kept in zoos is because when they are stressed, they don’t breed. They don’t create babies. When they die the zoo has to get hold of a new animal from somewhere else. Some of these animals will come from the wild where they should be left alone. This is not helping conservation but hurting it.

In America there are many private zoos. This means zoos owned by a person rather than a business or corporation. There aren’t many rules on how these people should look after the animals.

People who have their own small zoo like to think of their animals as pets. Often, they like to keep large animals like tigers and lions. These zoos are often of poor quality. The animals live in poor conditions. Sometimes kids get hurt or are killed. Also, if the person who owns the zoo becomes ill or is unable to look after the animals, what happens to them? There is no back up. The animals can suffer.

There have been stories of animals escaping from private zoos. Or the zoo keeper lets them out. When this happens the animals are nearly always killed by the police because they are dangerous. This is another reason why animals should not be kept in zoos.

People who have their own mini-zoo sometimes don’t understand how to look after their animals. They don’t realise how much it will cost to feed them and provide veterinary care. When this happens the animals suffer. They can become very ill and die. There are people who rescue these animals such as Big Cat Rescue. The fact that Big Cat Rescue exists means that there are quite a lot of wild cats in zoos who are suffering.

Another reason why animals should not be kept in zoos is because their existence tells the world that people have failed in allowing animals to live in the wild. Zoos are a symptom of failure. If all wild animals were allowed to live in wild places where they are meant to live there would be no need for zoos. We could still see the animals in the wild. It would be more difficult to see them but they could still be seen and enjoyed.

As there is a better alternative to zoos why do we have them? The answer is that they make money for people. The way zoo animals are used can be seen in the famous white tiger. You see a beautiful wild cat. Behind the scenes there are many white tigers born with physical defects which are sadly ugly because of ‘genetic problems’. People made this problem.

Truly if you think animals should be kept in zoos, you will think that people are better than animals and that we can use animals for our entertainment. If you believe people should respect all animals then you won’t want animals to be kept in zoos because it is unfair on them.

Don’t think that animals don’t feel emotions. They do. More people are gradually realising this. As wild animals feel emotions and as they have natural instincts to live in the wild, they are bound to feel unhappy in a cage with concrete underfoot rather than grass and earth with the sky and sun overhead. Do we have the right to make animals unhappy and ill for our entertainment?

However, there are some bright moments of conservation instigated by zoos. As many species are becoming endangered the conservation aspect of zoos is becoming more important as a last resort. An example is a critically endangered female western lowland gorilla and her male companion, both born in France at Zoo Parc de Beauval. Their names are Maycombe and Djongo respectively. They were shipped out to a national park in south-east Gabon where the mother gave birth to an infant in the wild. That is contributing to conservation and it is marked as a great success indicating its unusualness.

P.S. Anyone can add their thoughts to this essay in a comment below. I’d welcome them. I may well use your ideas in the essay because this essay was written in one go from my head (without looking at anything else). This means I may have missed something.

P.P.S See more essays on PoC.