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Andres Sanchez
Professor Batty
English 113B
May 10, 2016
Treatment of Zoo Animals
Many people see animals as objects where they feel they can own and imprison them in
artificial environments to make money off them. Animals are just like us in so many ways and
they dont deserve to go through mistreatment and they especially dont deserve to be taken
away from their families and from their natural homes. Once animals are caught from the wild
they are taken from their homes and it is unlikely that they will ever return to where they belong.
To some extent, zoos may be considered as a bad thing because its similar to a jail for us, but its
meant to keep animals inside. Dont get me wrong, there are some zoos out there that actually
care for their animals and will take the time to look after their animals that are kept in captivity.
In my perspective, I dont see what the point is in having zoos because people will just spend a
couple seconds looking at a particular animal. Zoos tend to make their tickets a bit overpriced
and a person spends most of their time standing and waiting for a few seconds of entertainment
from an animal which at times never comes. A better solution for this would be for us to visit
these animals trapped in Zoos in their natural habitat where we could actually see and witness
what these animals are like in the places where they belong. I believe that Zoos are keep animals
locked up and places like that take away an animal's freedom. On the contrary, others may say
that zoos are a good becuase they are there to help animals from going extinct, keeping them
healthy with the use of medicines, and looking out for them making sure no harm comes to them.

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Growing up made me realize the truth behind animals being kept in zoos. I never paid too
much attention to the feelings the animals may have, but getting older made me realize the
sadness these animals had by looking at their facial expressions. According to Michelle Carr,
Animals imprisoned in zoos are sad and dont want to be kept in artificial environments, have
people gawk at them, listen to children who bang on the windows of their enclosures, or have
cameras flashing in their faces. Zoos are imprisoning animals who want to be free (Carr).
Michelle Carr proves a point because these animals arent used to the attention of people and
especially having bright camera flashes right at their faces. Zoos are pointless because people
just spend a few seconds trying to see an animal do something exciting and that is something that
rarely happens. How could you expect an encaged animal to do something exciting when they
are miserable and sad all the time.
If you think about it, its easy to imagine yourself trapped just like these animals trapped
in zoos are. We have something similar to that, for us its considered as prison or jail where we
send those people who are bad and cause a threat to society. Of course no one wants to end up in
jail because onces in jail you wont have any type of freedom. The question is why are we
sending animals to prisons when they havent done anything to us. Why is it that we do all this
just for our excitement and amusement. We as humans beings tend to be selfish and we dont
take into account the feelings animals in zoos may go through. We need to let animals live their
lives in peace because Zoos dont allow animals to fully live out their lives in their natural
habitat. Zoos may make it seem that they do everything possible to bring an animals home to a
zoo, but animals are suffering from the inside. The major problem with zoos is that the animals
who live there are kept in enclosures that dont allow them to live their lives in a natural way

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(Zoos). No matter what zoos try to do for their animals kept inside, its pointless because the
animals living in the zoo will always be miserable and they will never be happy.
Many people may argue saying that having zoos is the best alternative for animals in
general and for animals that are close to extinction. For example, if a certain type of animal is
near extinction, then that is when people step in to help avoid the animals extinction. About
21% of the world's mammal, about 12% of the bird species, and about 33% of all amphibian
species are threatened with extinction (Why). I agree with there being zoos because some Zoos
actually take care of animals and cover the expenses when an animal is sick. People take action
when they see an animal close to extinction. Why do zoos matter? Basically because we care.
Because we want to keep this planets amazing wildlife around for future generations (Why).
We can work together to prevent extinction, but we shouldnt keep these animals in zoos where
they become miserable. Some people become so obsessed with animals and they end up
purchasing a rare type of animal. A person who I know purchased a tiger was no other than Floyd
Mayweather. Animal lovers never realize what animals living in places like zoos can do to an
animal. They think just because theyre fluffy and cute that it's enough for them to take them and
make a quick buck out of. Apparently some zoos are helping endangered animals by keeping
them and helping them breed so that their species does not become extinct which is known as
breeding programs. Zoos previously captured most of their animals directly from the wild, they
now get many through captive breeding programs (Horton). Animals should be returned back to
the wild where they are able to roam free and dont have to worry about being miserable for the
rest of their lives.
Many people would say that they take great care of their animals, but let's face it not
every zoo will treat the animals living in there the same and treat them correctly. There are some

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places where they take the time to actually raise and nurture an animal, but now it's just all about
the money and they do whatever they can to obtain that money. Since technology has changed so
much, people think that there is no need to care for these animals. Just imagine being in the shoes
of a tiger, where all your life you've hunted for your food and then you are captured and sent of
to a zoo where you will probably spend the rest of your life. Imagine yourself trapped in a small
place for the rest of your life where no where to go. What would you do?

Works Cited
Carr, Michelle. "The Reality of Zoos." PETA The Reality of Zoos Comments. PETA, n.d.
Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

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Horton, Jennifer. "Are Zoos Good or Bad for Animals?" HowStuffWorks. N.p., 18 Sept.
2008. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.

Saint Louis Zoo." Why Zoos Matter ::. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2016

"Zoos." Animal Cruelty -. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.