Zoo: classic or dud

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Discuss.

― Billy Corgan aka rat in a cage, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Depends on the animal and how the zoo is run. Predators and birds I don't think should be kept in captivity. Herbivores tend to be cuter anyway and all they do is wander round eating plants all day so give them plenty of space and grass and I'm fine with it.

― Tom, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll defend zoos. Once you see the great beasts close up you can develop the ability to care about them. People who claim that seeing them on TV is good enough these days are completely mistaken.

― dave q, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

if it works hard at replicating the enviroment and the cage is big enough and they have an extensive breeding program then acceptable.

― anthony, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Thus your love for them huge rodents, Tom. ;-) The San Diego Zoo is the one I grew up with and to their credit, like Anthony said, the managers have expanded that and the Wild Animal Park to reduce the number of cages and expand the number of open habitats. Not perfect, but better than many spots.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

In much of the world, we've made a deliberate decision about how of the natural habitat we will leave over for animals. A zoo seems to be the same sort of thing but on a different scale.

― Magnus, Wednesday, 5 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

zoos suck. Free the critters! all the animals do is sit there and look depressed, as far from the glass as they can get

― Mike Hanle y, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

As Dave Q. hints, zoos, in a way, are theoretically perfect: visiting them either results in empathy or curiosity. Either way you probably leave caring more about the animals, which, at the time of some of these zoo's creations, were inacessible to people's sight, if not imagination. Whether that potential stimulated interest in zoology/animal rights/whatever and the knowledge about an entire species accrued by holding a slight few in captivity is worth the price, I guess, is the concern.

To be honest, would I be pleased if all Beluga whales were in captivity? No, of course not, but selfishly I'm glad that two Beluga whales are in Chicago. If that sounds callous, maybe it is. Vegans, slingshots at ready. Anyone else...

― scott p., Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

zoos suck. it ain't right to take an animal out of its natural habitat, even if you try to replicate the habitat cos its impossible to do it. hanle y is right, the animals do sit around and look depressed. why the fuck do we need to look at exotic animals anyway?it shows no respect for the creatures that they are merely there for humans to look at, and it ain't too far removed from the way the "hottentot Venus" was displayed in Europe a century or two ago.

― di, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

but if they are endangered and we help them out . they are killing pandas for their skins and rhinos for their horns. you cannot poach in a zoo.

― anthony, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

good point anthony. but i still don't approve of zoos for the reasons i have already stated.

― di, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I kind of agree with Q & with Anthony. Lotta the time animals are safer in captivity than out there where they get poached & shit. but yeah I've seen, like , chipanzees lying on the floor of a small stinky cage looking like they wish they could die. I dunno. Poss solution - REALLY BIG zoos.

― duane, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Like Calgary and San Diego. Who really try to nake sure they feel at "home" . A tough call all around.

― anthony, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

seven months pass...

i think zoos suck we should't keep animals in cages and it's cruel and not the way to deal with the situation.if you think that keeping animals in metal bars is a good thing you should think again.animals shold live in their own habitat and sholud not be keept in habitat. that

― ikramawaale, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I saw a gorilla throw a wad of poop at a spectator once. For that zoo's are classic.

― Chris, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If I were a kindly zookeeper I'd be mad as hell at all these people implying I was a wanker.

― N., Saturday, 4 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I kind of love going to zoos, while being sort of morally opposed to them. I guess my moral opposition only really kicks in when I see a very bad one. There's an otherwise lovely park next to the Topkapi palace in Istanbul with a little free zoo, including a beautiful bear in a tiny cage that I couldn't stand to see. I liked the fortune- telling bunny though. There's a mostly lovely zoo near Bhubaneswar (sp?) in Orissa, India, with dozens of tigers (including something like 20 white tigers!)in huge, wildish enclosures, and wild monkeys happily playing above the crocodiles - and elephants with their legs chained. The worst I've seen was in Calcutta, where very many of the animals looked severely unwell, lots of mangey big cats in small, bare cells with crumbling cement floors. Really nasty.

― Martin Skidmore, Saturday, 4 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If I were a kindly zookeeper I'd be mad as hell at all these people implying I was a wanker.

I am employed in the, er, zoo/aquarium industry and I've got lots of zookeeper/aquarist buddies. Most of them are way too biology-nerdish and socially inept to realize that anyone could consider them wankers.

Anyway, I used to have issues about zoos and all that, especially considering that I am a recovering vegan. But then I realized how much I'd like to a) have a spiffy habitat built for me b) people cleaning up after me all that time and c) free food always. Sounds cool. Plus animals are stupid and really don't know any better.

All that only goes for nice zoos though. Sketchy dirty ghetto zoos are evil.

― adam, Saturday, 4 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

four months pass...

how would u like it if u were placed in a cage. animals are living and breathing just like us why is it that just because we are the smarter of the species we have to use it against them and put them into cages and look at them..... im actually writing a paper about this and came across this site in doing so. this is like the 15th or 20th site ive been to and reading about how the animals are treated in zoos is gross. let them leave out in the wild...how can u say they are safer in cages how do u no how they feel ur not them thats like saying ur safer in a cage because of all the diesases that go around that affect humans and the fact that there is terrorism in the world and you could die at any second. you no everyone lives life knowing that one day they are going to die why not let them live there life in a place that fits them. humans get to choose where they want to live why cant animals. its cruel to choose where they should live due to what WE HUMANS WANT!

― , Tuesday, 1 October 2002 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

im actually writing a paper about this

I hope you put a little more effort into your paper than your post above.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)

zoos are bad. animals may not get poached in zoos and we may be helping to prevent a species from becoming extinct (which is a bit like saying that planting a couple of trees in tesco's car park is our way of stopping deforestation) but lions and tigers do not come from chester and shouldn't be forced to live there in a cage.

― michael wells (michael w.), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 07:36 (twenty-two years ago)

eleven months pass...

I heart the Toronto Zoo.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 8 September 2003 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

seven years pass...

I love zoos, but so many people hate them that my love for them makes me feel like a jerk sometimes. Like I love nothing more than to cause animals pain!

― Mormons come out of the sky and they stand there (Abbbottt), Saturday, 2 October 2010 17:15 (fourteen years ago)

sentimentality about nonhumans is reactionary in the extreme.

― banaka, Saturday, 2 October 2010 17:19 (fourteen years ago)

For most animals the worst thing about zoo confinement is boredom. The better zoos try hard to counteract this by introducing elements of change and excitement into the lives of their animals.

― Aimless, Saturday, 2 October 2010 17:20 (fourteen years ago)

Most humans are confined, too...by society.

They are told to be active productive workers, but also to have fun and enjoy their individuality. This conflict cannot be resolved without re-ordering all levels of human thought and interaction (through technology and conditioning). "Fun" and "enjoyment" should be eliminated entirely, but so should the notion of "work" as something individuals perform for a reward. Both concepts would be replaced in our New Society. Each unit of the collective would act out their assigned role willingly and and unswervingly, as the highest and purest expression of their being.

― banaka, Saturday, 2 October 2010 17:39 (fourteen years ago)

That be some goooood horseshit, b.

― Aimless, Saturday, 2 October 2010 17:48 (fourteen years ago)

horse feces are useful for fertilizer

― banaka, Saturday, 2 October 2010 17:50 (fourteen years ago)

so yes, we agree: our position is good horseshit. we consider ourselves the fertilizer for the New Society, and the rest of you are the soil.

― banaka, Saturday, 2 October 2010 17:52 (fourteen years ago)

iow, you dump shit on our heads and call it food for thought?

― Aimless, Saturday, 2 October 2010 18:14 (fourteen years ago)

oh, well. everyone needs a hobby.

― Aimless, Saturday, 2 October 2010 18:21 (fourteen years ago)

nutritious shit

― banaka, Saturday, 2 October 2010 18:43 (fourteen years ago)

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