Animal Days Out Community Blog

What Is The Point of Zoo's?


Just prior to the general election Labour's Charities Minister Angela Smith denounced zoos as "relics of the Victorian era" and said it was "inappropriate to keep wild animals in captivity in this way". She went on to say that "Target dates should be set for the final animals to be imported and the last zoo to be shut". Labour Party Animal Welfare Minister Jim Fitzpatrick quickly responded to the comments stating that, "there are no plans to shut down zoo's" and that Ms Smith's comments were expressing her own view and did not reflect government policy. Even DEFRA felt obliged to pipe up that there was "no plans to ban zoo's".

Talk about stirring up a hornet's nest!

So is Ms Smith accurate in her assumption that zoo's are out of date and nothing more than a collection of animals to stare at, or is she terribly out of touch with the current generation of animal, wildlife and nature attraction initiatives in improving animal conservation and welfare?

We at Animal Days Out refuse to get drawn into a political debate. We are aware that no matter what Ms Smith's own personal thoughts were, to express them just before a general election was at best naive. Do her arguments stack up?

Captivity

Ms Smith's primary main issue above all others is that she believes that animals should be free in the wild rather than captive. In an ideal world we would all agree with this point of view. It would magical to live side by side with animals roaming free in the wild. Realistically though, there is an ever shrinking number of 'wild' places left on this tiny planet of ours. Whether it's the rainforests, the plains, the mountains and even the oceans, the biggest single most threat to animals has been a loss and destruction of their habitat. This is why so many species in the world are endangered or on the edge of extinction. Man has systematically destroyed the natural habitats of one-third of all the known species on Earth according to the world's leading authority on conservation, the IUCN. Would we release all captive orangutans back to Indonesia where 2 million hectares of rainforest are destroyed every year? Should we send captive animals back to Africa and let them take their chances from being poached for their ivory or to be shot and eaten in the very poorest of nations, where perhaps animal welfare is not on the agenda? Even the safari park reserves in Africa are really professionally managed areas of land and are not truly 'wild' with the animals living there technically captive. Without universal global agreement of every government of every nation in the world, un-conditionally signing a strict legally binding UN directive, it would surely be a death sentence to release captive animals back into the wild. Most governments can not even agree on climate change, let alone on animal welfare.

Animal Welfare

Long gone are the days when animals were kept in cramped enclosures in zoo's. Most zoo's and wildlife parks in the UK have built large free-roaming areas specifically designed to provide a suitable habitat aligned to the creature comforts expected from each individual species. Many attractions have replicated large areas to the finest detail, ensuring that the environment mirrors their natural habitat. Zoo's and Wildlife Parks have an array of experts working for them at ground level. The Victorian curiosty has been replaced by a professional business with animal welfare central to it's aims and objectives and regulated strictly by European and British law. The majority of our UK animal attractions are directly involved in overseas projects and initiatives with animals. This can involve managing land, supporting new and on-going projects and rescuing distressed or orphaned animals.As Charities Minister, we are surprised that Ms Smith fails to recognise the many charities supporting captive and wild animals. In fact many of the zoo's and wildlife parks are registered charities directly or indirectly supporting animal welfare in the UK and abroad.

The only chance of survival for some endangered species is the captive breeding programs that many of our zoo's and wildlife parks have undertaken. This has improved the population of many endangered species and allowed many to be re-introduced back into their natural environment.

Education

Ms Smith continued "You can understand the Victorians who were amazed by what they saw when these specimens were brought back because they couldn't travel, but now people can travel and they can see animals in amazing films and television documentaries". Will the children of tomorrow be limited to experiencing wildlife on television documentaries or through their home computer or Nintendo Wii? How can they possibly understand the issues of endangered species and animal conservation by building a succesful farm in Farmville. If today's generation do not get access to animals in the flesh, they will never truly build an affinity with them and understand their plight.

Schools up and down the country use the excellent facilities at many animal and wildlife attractions as part of their educational syllabus. They can get close to nature and experience the texture, smell and sounds of wildlife. They can then relate to animals they have seen at close hand to animals they have seen on TV. They understand they are real and not two-dimensional images.

It's not only children that benefit. Adults can benefit from the education gained from just one visit to a zoo or wildlife park. Many are oblivious to the plight of endangered species and are truly shocked when they learn about some of the harsh facts threatening the survival of certain animals and wildlife.

Yes, in an ideal world all animal, wildlife and nature lovers would want animals to be free and wild, but unfortunately we are a long way from living in perfect harmony with wildlife in an ideal world.