As a kid, your favorite place to go was the zoo, right? You were fascinated by the big and exotic animals that you'd never get to see outside of a zoo. Walking through the exhibit with the amphibians and looking at all the snakes just to make your skin crawl. Or going through the aquarium to find Marlin and Dory and seeing all of the other weird shaped creatures. Walking up to the lion exhibit and imagining how big they are compared to a small child. The polar bears, elephants, peacocks, even the antelopes made it hard for you to leave without stopping into the gift shop to buy a stuffed animal at the end of the day.
The older you got, the more you enjoyed and appreciated going because they weren't just animals to you, they were all unique creatures and it was a gift to be able to see something so wild so close to you. Each time you go you can enjoy even more memories at an older age that you never would've been able to when you were a child.
We never want to think the worst of a place that we enjoy so much. Every time we see a video or hear on the news animals being trapped and contained, we think "how inhumane," yet we love going to the zoo. Now, I'm not saying that zoos are horrible places, because they're not. The animals are well cared for and fed daily. They have veterinarians and caretakers on staff to make sure the animal stays happy and somewhat comfortable.
But what was born in the wild should stay in the wild. Polar bears were born to live in cold climates, much colder than ours and need space to run and play with their young, which are both necessities that zoos cannot provide. Elephants need room to walk because in the wild that's all they do and a zoo can't give them the walking space they need. Gorillas, unlike any other monkey, are shy and need their privacy and when everyone is looking at them through glass windows they feel trapped and have no where to hide. With those three animals being my favorite at the zoo, I still can't stand the fact that they're not in their natural habitats.
Most animals that are held in zoos now are perfectly capable of living on their own in the wild where they were born. You may not agree, but I believe that zoos should be a sanctuary or a rehabilitation center for all animals, endangered or not, taking in any animal that has been wounded or harmed, give them treatment and then send them back to where they belong. Even though it is fun to visit the zoo every now and then it is still wrong to keep an animal, that was born to roam, in captivity for so long. What was born in the wild should stay in the wild.
