Animals in Captivity: Why They Should Not Be Kept in Zoos

Animals should all be kept in their natural habitat, the wild but unfortunately there are many animals in captivity all around the world. “Why animals should not be kept in zoos?” essay explains why it is wrong to keep animals away from their natural habitat. These animals that are in captivity are usually kept in zoos, aquariums, theme parks and sometimes in laboratories. Animals are kept in captivity for entertainment purposes like in zoos and they are also kept in captivity for research and education purposes, like they are kept in labs.

The majority of the enclosures that these animals are being held in are way too small for the animals inside of them. Most of these animals are used to roaming many kilometres out in the wild but in captivity the do not have all of that free space that they usually would. Many animals actually lose their natural instinct while being held in captivity and so if they are released back into the wild for any reason they would not know how to act or hunt as a wild animal. Animals have also become agitated and aggressive in captivity.

For example, in the Netflix film Blackfish we see the how behaviour of killer whales that have been held in captivity in SeaWorld parks is different to the behaviour of killer whales in the wild. These whales have blunt teeth from gnawing at the sides of the small pools that they have been kept in, they have scratch marks and wounds all along their bodies from the whales biting each other and injuring themselves against the edges of the pools and they also have collapsed dorsal fins while whales in the wild have normal dorsal fins standing upright. The largest killer whale tank at SeaWorld is 36 feet deep but in the wild killer whales usually dive to roughly 500 feet down in the ocean. Killer whales travel an average of 120 kilometres per day in the wild but in captivity they travel far less. In the wild male whales live for 30 to 60 years and females live for 50 to 100 but in SeaWorld their male whale’s life expectancy is 30 to 38 years and a female whales is 46 to 50 years. In the wild there are no recorded cases of a killer whale killing a human but in captivity there are four reported fatalities and three of them are from a whale that belonged to SeaWorld Tilikum. This shows you that whales become aggressive in captivity and they do things that they normally would not do in the wild. It is also not just whales it is most animals that these things happen to because animals are just used to having space to roam and be free. Many animals pace around

To conclude, some people say that it is okay to have animals in zoos for educational purposes, but it is not. These animals are not being viewed in their natural habitats and they do not act or behave in the same way as the do in the wild as they do in captivity and looking at an animal behind glass or in a cage is not exactly educating. It is teaching you that it is okay to lockup animals for your own entertainment. Most people that go to zoos or theme parks like SeaWorld do not go for educational reasons they go for entertainment even if people say that zoos are used for educational purposes.