Zoos are in the news a lot recently. A gorilla was sadly shot dead because a child fell into it's enclosure and they feared for the child's safety and not long ago zoos hit the headlines as it was shown that they cull animals and feed them to others to stop them over populating and this practice was shown to shocked tourists on a behind the scenes tour.
In both cases everyone was understandably upset. In the more recent story about the Gorilla, the parents are being blamed by the media for not looking after their child. The zoo is being blamed for killing the animal when behavioural experts say he wasn't showing any aggression. However I think people are missing a point that the beautiful (Vegan) creature should not have been kept in an enclosure for the entertainment of others in the first place. If he wasn't there and the family hadn't gone along to see the animal none of this would have happened.
Of course I have to admit I have been to a zoo before, and I enjoyed it. It was amazing seeing creatures I had only seen in pictures so I can understand why people visit them but recently I have changed my mind about the whole business. This isn't a natural way to see animals and just like I don't think animals should be killed for food they are also not on this planet for our entertainment however much you might want to see a creature you've never seen before. My joy at a being at a zoo quickly ended when I saw the sadness in the eyes of the animals, especially the monkeys and gorillas who are proven to be highly intelligent. Some people will say that zoos are a way to breed endangered species. However a better way to protect endangered species is to have national parks and safaris where they are protected but able to live in their natural habitats, at the end of the day a zoo is a business designed for entertainment, they try to fit as many animals in as possible to attract customers. There doesn't seem to be much thought to the space these creatures would have had in the wild. There is nothing worse than seeing an animal in a tiny cage or looking bored in an unnatural environment. The fact that zoos have to kill animals and feed them to others shows how unnatural it has become, these caged creatures probably couldn't survive in the wild now because humans have taken away their natural instincts.
The only way to keep humans safe from wild animals is not to put them on display and let them live their lives naturally. Some people are blaming the parents of the child who fell into the gorillas enclosure but there are always going to be accidents and unforeseen things can happen when you put wild animals in an unnatural place. Also the idea that humans are top of the food chain that some people have and use as an excuse to eat meat clearly isn't true as if it was the case why would humans fear a gorilla? They could just walk into the enclosure and carry the child out. We need to stop thinking that because humans have weapons we are superior, we need to respect all animals and let them live their lives in a natural way and respect that they are strong and often dangerous and we should leave them in peace. Until all zoos are closed we will keep hearing upsetting stories because nothing good can come from keeping animals prisoners just as nothing good can come from slaughtering animals for food. I don't know whether the gorilla would have harmed the child and I don't know if the whole situation was the parents fault and I don't think people should be applying blame we should be instead looking at why we still feel it necessary to keep animals on display. It's time to empty the cages and stop using animals for entertainment.
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