Animals shouldn’t spend their lives in captivity only to satisfy our desire to observe them. Here are the top 10 facts about zoos you should be aware of.
Zoos are not the best places for animals. In 2010 a Freedom for Animals undercover investigator recorded sick animals left without treatment and dead animals lying on the floors of Tweddle Farm Zoo. Freedom for Animals was required to take rabbits to the vet to be treated for infections, and following our expose, local police confiscated a monkey that was left alone with a cake and junk food items to consume.
Think that safari parks are more enticing than traditional or ‘zoos? Woburn Safari Park had its lions inside tiny enclosures for the entire day. A report from the government’s zoo inspection in 2010 stated: “The animals were very overcrowded, and there was not enough space for individual feeding or sleeping spaces. There was no evidence of environmental enrichment.
A few of the lions showed injuries to the skin and wounds ranging in age. Some were fresh. Others were healed .”
FACTS ABOUT ZOOS
Have a look at these hand-picked top facts about Zoos and share them with your kids!
Zoos can’t provide sufficient space.
Zoos can’t provide the quantity of space that animals enjoy in their natural environment. This is especially true for species that roam greater distances in the natural environment. The lions and the tigers share around 18,000 times smaller zoos than they would have in the wild. Polar bears are one million times smaller in space.
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Animals suffer in zoos
A study funded by the government on elephants at UK Zoos revealed the 54% percent of elephants had stereotypies (behavioral issues) during the daylight hours. One elephant observed day and night was stereotyped during 61% of the 24 hours.
Zoo animals spend 48 percent of their time walking to indicate behavioral problems.
Animals die prematurely in zoos.
African elephants that roam in the wild can live up to three times longer than those in Zoos. Even Asian elephants in timber camps have a longer lifespan than animals in zoos.
Forty percent of lion cubs pass away before the age of one month. Only 30% of cubs die before they reach six months old in the wild. At least third deaths are caused by factors not present in zoos, such as predation.
Animals that are surplus to slaughter
The Freedom for Animals study found that at most 7,500 animals and perhaps as high as 200,000 animals – in European Zoos are in surplus at any moment.
Animals are often removed from UK Zoos. In 2006, the entire group of wolves in Highland Wildlife Park were killed because they realized that the structure and sociality of their group had been broken. In 2005, two wolf cubs and a female adult were killed in Dartmoor Wildlife Park.
The vet stated: “Selective cull due to overcrowding and fighting in the pack” and “Further cull of cubs needed.” In 2001, a DEFRA inspection of the zoo at Dartmoor Wildlife Park in October 2001 revealed the following “several significant dead animals” were kept in a freezer used for food “for taxidermy in the future.”
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UK Zoos are associated with circuses for animals.
Freedom for Animals exposed a UK Zoo in 2009, a part of the trade organization BIAZA (which is supposed to adhere to the most rigorous standards) as having a connection to breeding with an animal circus that was controversial. Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm had been breeding camels from the Great British Circus for several years, and in 2009 they acquired three animals from the circus.
A female tiger in the zoo lost three cubs, and one died after three weeks. The mother also died.
This zoo was discovered to have a relationship with another trainer of circus animals in 2013. The same trainer purchased cubs of lions from West Midland Safari Park and transferred the cubs to an on-the-go spectacle within Japan.
The animals are taught to do tricks.
Zoos often teach animals to do tricks like they are in the circus. Sea elephants, lions, and birds can be seen in various UK Zoos.
A portion of training for elephants was done with electronic goads. Freedom for Animals infiltrated a training session held in the Blackpool Zoo in 1998 and captured elephants learning to raise their feet and head, put sticks in their mouths, and then jab using elephant hooks to the head and shoulder.
In 2010, it was found that an elephant from Woburn Safari Park had previously had a training session using an electric goad.
Animals are still taken from the wild.
In 2003, the UK government granted permission to capture 146 penguins in an area that was a British territory located in the South Atlantic (Tristan da Cunha). The penguins that survived the seven-day trip by boat between Tristan towards a retailer located in South Africa were sold to Zoos in Asia [11in Asia [11.
In 2010, Zimbabwe was planning to capture two members of each mammal species within Hwange National Park and send the animals to North Korean zoos. These include rhinos and lions, leopards, cheetahs and giraffes, and two elephants that were 18 months old. The plans were only stopped following international pressure from an alliance of groups, including Freedom for Animals.
70% of elephants at European Zoos were captured out of the wild (1212.
The Freedom for Animals study found that 79% of animals at UK aquariums were captured from the wild. Sea Life aquariums admitted to having wild animals taken up to 2013 but did not reveal the number of the animals kept by them was caught in the wild.
Zoos don’t serve conservation.
Zoos claim that they breed animals to be released into the wild. However, breeding programs are designed to maintain an animal population in captivity and not ensure Reintroduction.
Zoos have a lot of lions; however, the majority “are general animals of hybrid or unidentified subspecific status and have little or no significance in terms of conservation.
Director of the Zoo David Hancocks said: “There is a common myth that zoos do not only rescue wild animals from the brink of extinction, but they also help them return to their natural habitats. The confusion is due to many sources, none of which are Zoo-related. However, in reality, most zoos have been in no involvement whatsoever with any reintroduction programs.”
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Zoos fail education
A Freedom for Animals study of UK aquariums revealed an average of 41% of exhibit animals did not have any signs that identified their species. This is among this is the most fundamental of facts.
A US study did not provide convincing proof to suggest that aquariums and zoos encourage attitudes to change, education, or an interest in conservation among guests. The study’s authors urged Zoos to stop using a study funded by zoos that claimed that there was an educational benefit to visits “as the conclusion is not substantiated and could be misleading to consumers.”
In 2010, a Government-commissioned study found that “Concerns remain about the lack of available evidence about the effectiveness” of conservation and education projects in zoos.
