> Why don't you go to Africa and ask real people who are still > slaves how they feel. I would much rather champion the > abolition of human slavery before I worry about removing > animals from the zoo. Zoo's offer a chance to learn and a > change to breed endangered species. Yeah I feel bad when I > see the bald eagle in the cage where it can't fly, but I > enjoy taking my son to the zoo where he can see animals that > he would never see otherwise (unless we go on safari in > Africa), some of which if left in the wild would be hunted by > poachers. I think Zoo's serve a purpose, whether you agree > with that purpose if up to you.
I agree that zoos can be wonderful places. I also think that many of them are not wonderful places for the animals. Elephants, Rhinos and the large cats in particular are just not suited in any way for Zoo (or circus) life. There's just no zoo that can provide the range needed to really satisfy. With more animals being raised in captivity this problem is lessening (there is a distinct difference in mental stress between an elephant raised in captivity and one taken from the wild). But even then the instinct is to roam and knock over trees and such - instincts that must be supressed by training... And that causes stress. The more intelligent and animal the greater the problems stress can cause. The great apes, elephants, dolphins, etc are all extremely bright animals. Their size means that they'll never get enough space in a zoo and their intelligence means that, however dimmly, they know it. However bringing up human slavery is a bit off topic to me (like people that end all arguments with "the Nazis did that you know!"). In any case we're talking about a population of over 6 billion humans and under 10,000 black Rhinos. Personally I'll root for the underdog. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com
