what do you think of zoos?
 

I got this idea from another forum I'm signed onto.
Personally I think they're good (the ones that try their best to stimulate the animals and are very large as opposed to the ones in which animals are kept in small cages), as they do help raise awareness of the state of some species and help endangered ones (captive breeding)

i used to go to this one just outside of winchester called Marwell all the time, it was great!!!!

now when i think of zoo's i think of this

i dislike zoo's. i am not against them completely but i went to an east german one years ago and what i saw there made me cry like a baby in the street outside. generally with the smaller animals i think its ok as their habitat would be the same size in the wild but the larger animals i think its cruel.

why cant zoo's be like the mighty boosh? that woud be ace.

I'm not exactly against them, but I avoid them because I always come out kinda depressed. I really don't think some of the animals mind their situation, but the primate exhibits and large marine animal exhibits always get me down.
Also, there was a polar bear who seemed particularly dejected that always got to me at a local zoo. I do think most people who work in zoos have a genuine love for their job and for animals though.

like most people have said.. im not exactly against them, for the reasons of 'helping out' endangered species, but the aspect of a tiny environment that they are confined to basically the entire length of there lives... upsetting. i was at the "Biosphere" in montréal this week, and it was neat because its 4 simulated environments where the animals are free to walk or fly or swim around (save for the little paths where humans roam to see these animals) freely. it's cool, one section is a rainforest environment, then next is laurentian forest, the next being a sort of ocean area.. and the final one is much smaller, only housing penguins and puffins, but its the arctic/antarctic. ...i really got off-topic there..

Animal Cruelty, Yet I Still Love Them.

how can a place which cares for species that are endangered. rears em, brings new life to em, helps them live happily and away from baiting and stuff like that be cruel???

zoos are not all like the concrete and rusted steel ones of eastern russia yknow. zoos have their place in the worlds ecological myre and furthermore, the kidz love em and its educational. dublin zoo used to be appalling but its great now.
last week a 19 yr old "thrillseeker" girl scaled 2 9 foot fences in order to pet and stroke a siberian tiger. she got mauled badly and almost lost an arm. the tiger is at the moment facing the bullet!!! its the fucking eejit of a girl that should be wiped off the face of the world..... dont reckon the tiger will pay for his natural instinct to be honest, they would be uproar.

That is stupidity on a Darwinian level.
"I made an extreme and prohibited effort to go near a highly territorial wild carnivore and it had the audacity to attack me! The nerve!"

why Darwinian?!

As in "nature weeding out the feeble-minded."

I think there is a system that zoos will sometimes send animals to other zoos for a period of time. I know it's like that for breeding purposes.

However, I agree with your point. For larger animals (most) zoos have large environments. The tiny ones are cruel, but only if the zookeepers don't give the animals activities to allow it to have fun. But who knows what animals think about being in zoos.

Of course I haven't been to one in a very long time.
I've always wanted to go back to the Toronto Zoo, that one was great (I always loved it as a kid). But here in Ottawa there is a rather small Zoo called the Papanack Zoo, which is about the size of a medium sized farm (it's a family owned zoo). It had somewhat small inclosures, but I don't think it had a large budget at that point (last time I went was many years ago). plus there's only a few species of animals they keep (about 30)

i remember one occasion of being at the toronto zoo. i was a kid, and i guess i enjoyed it. im sure i would come out feeling depressed nowadays just because i (don't know, but assume) the life, so mundane and repetitive, must be a shitty one at best... and yeah, fro breeding purposes they would move em around temporarily i guess.

I'd like a zoo which contains people dressed as animals, rather than actual animals.

The last time I went to the zoo I was 21. It was in London, expensive, and half of the exhibits were closed. ba baow.

I like it when the hippo-thing shitpisses on my wife.

good times

I'm not exactly super-versed in Zoo management but I'm too skeptical of the claim that zoos are necessarily abusive of animals. I think it's very possible to run a humane (I would prefer a less begging term) zoo, given that the zoo has the means to pursue that end.

Then again, this may be because I've been spoiled by the San Diego Zoo which is one of the largest and most progressive zoos in the world.

I will never grow tired of this picture from the local gorilla house.

the child attached to the pointing finger was very curious as to what the violently masturbating silverback was up to (he was up to about 4"s).


GRiLLA PrOn

I guess zoos are good. otherwise we may become unaware of how to treat certain species, and like you said survival of a species. More things to look at and experience, as opposed to other...

The seaside town I grew up in has a small zoo. I used to nip down there often with friends carrying a bag of fruit to feed the animals.