Ethical questions arise about captivity within

Isabela Diaz | Staff Writer

Trapped in a tight cage, clawing for an escape. Their empty shadows run across the bars. People stare and a fire ignites from a device, causing the animals to stamper back. The phrase ‘treated like an animal’ was not meant to be a good thing. The phrase came from the mistreated animalsthemselves. Mistreated does not have to necessarily mean physically attacked, it can mean not getting the needed space to roam around or not enough food.

Zoos are places that almost everyone has been to and can enjoy. There is something absolutely breathtaking about seeing an elephant stomp around 20 feet away from you. While zoos are an absolutely amazing place, zoos are not always amazing for the animals. Many have argued about the ethicality of zoos; not only the ethicality but how some animals are mistreated at zoos. The ethicality of zoos has not been a pressing matter though it should be.

Laughter, ice cream, sunny days. Sweat trickles down past your eyebrow. Then, a tiger’s roar. Silence. Trapped in a four-sided cage with no room to walk, the tiger’s roar almost hurts to hear. Humans of the world are always trying to grab the beauty of nature and put it in a tiny box in their hands. Humans always pick things up and keep them; like when one picks up a butterfly, they have already killed it for it can no longer fly. By taking something out of its natural habitat, humans are exposing that creature to something foreign, almost endangering that animal altogether. When a human puts a lion in a cage, what purpose does it have in there? With nothing to hunt, nowhere to run, the lion is useless. There is something absolutely beautiful about nature that humans can not get from cages. So why as humans do we have to keep everything in a box?

The zoo is hands-down an amazing place. You get to see animals that you otherwise would not have if it wasn’t for the zoo: penguins swimming in circles, giraffes chomping down on leaves, lions roaring to the sky. Zoos help preserve this amazing scenery. Though some change is needed, zoos should still stick around because of all the benefits they provide. Not only do visitors get to see the animals they probably would not get to on the daily, zoo-goers get to learn about them as well. Almost every exhibit there has its own unique plaque that gives facts and information on that animal. Not only is it informative, but people get exposed to life through the animal. Humans get to see the way the animals walk and hear their roars, something one would not hear on the regular.

However, visitors can not forget that humans are taking them out of their natural habitat. At that, there need to be some changes for the animals’ sake. Space is one of the biggest issues; along with spacing comes food and naturalistic things like letting the animals hunt.

A zoo is a magical place. Walking in and hearing the lions’ roar is something one will never forget. Though magical, along comes the issues presented. Fix the spacing, food, and naturalistic things that are needed for the animals, then the zoo will be one of the best places in the world to see and learn about these animals.