hey i was wondering how you feel about zoos and aquariums? ive been seeing a lot of people (idk if theyre vegan) trying to support them by saying theyre non profit, accredited animal rehabilitation centers, & that makes them okay? i have a problem with this cos most zoos i know definitely arent for that purpose, they just seem to cage animals up&like ones with zoos r killing polar bears cos its not their natural habitat, & i know many actual rehabilitation centers tht never call themselves a zoo
I totally agree with you on that, Zoos are businesses! Sanctuaries, Natural Reserves, National Parks and such are truly for conservation and nature’s well-being.
Thats absolutely not true most modern zoos do a lot conservancy, they breed endangered animals, release them in the wild, put a lot of work and money in helping to keep envoirements safe etc. Lots of zoos nowadays are non profit or they are owned by the city or county theyre located in also for example one of my local zoos spends a certain amount of its entree fees to nature protection projects.
And again zoos are not animal prisons
Check the zoo’s accreditation! The zoo I work at is AZA accredited (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) and has to dedicate money toward education and conservation in order to maintain that status. It was even the first zoo in the U.S. to specifically include education in its mission statement. There are strict enclosure spacing regulations, conservancy projects, and an extensive species survival plan (SSP) in place for all our endangered species.
I think it’s important for the public to remain watchful of the zoo/aquarium industry–as I would any industry–but keep in mind the important work accredited institutions do. We have a male amur leopard at the zoo, and because of a recommendation from the SSP (based on genetic diversity) we just got a female from another zoo shipped in! The amur leopard’s whole wild population can fit on a school bus. Without an SSP in place, they are in serious danger of going extinct.
Most zoos are non-profit organizations, not “businesses.”
I want to put the anti-zoo people on the school bus with the wild amur leopard population.
Meanwhile, a whole ton of modern sanctuaries that are technically non-profit are somehow tied in with the big animal rights organizations (HSUS owns the GFAS web domain, and Born Free’s CEO is on the GFAS board of directors) and conveniently get a huge amount of money in fundraising for each new “rescue” that the AR orgs place with them.
Oh, and at least for big cats, the “accredited” sanctuaries AR orgs require rescues to go to aren’t allowed to breed them. Even though they’re endangered. And the organizations have previously expressly stated that their goal is removing all big cats from any type of captivity in the USA, including zoos with SSPs.
Conservation, my ass.
Not sure if someone mentioned this already, but AZA accredited zoos legally have to meet much higher standards of animal care than sanctuaries. On average zoo staff are more highly trained/educated than sanctuary staff and zoo animals usually have more resources (in terms of both knowledge and money) available to be put towards their care.
If you’re going to argue that captivity is bad then there is absolutely no reason to consider captivity in a sanctuary better than captivity in a zoo just because “sanctuary” sounds nicer.
And the idea that sanctuaries do more for nature and conservation than zoos is hilariously inaccurate. There are many species that only still exist on this planet because of the blood, sweat, and tears that zoos have poured into their conservation. The same cannot be said of sanctuaries.
All of this. Over and over again. Until I die from educating people.
A Glitch Named Anti 