Are Zoos Unethical to Animals? (Essay Sample)

Are Zoos Unethical to Animals?
Samantha Mwangi
Uvocorp Recruitment
Are Zoos Unethical to Animals?
Walking around an animal zoo on a Saturday afternoon can be a great experience especially in the company of small children. The site of animals provides an aura of entertainment for the visitors. Some animals might not be publicly displayed but rather are enclosed in isolation for various purposes. To an ordinary person, this might look all right but to an animal right activist this is entirely wrong. Animal zoos are unethical because they deprive an animal the freedom of natural habitat, acts as an entertainment, and provide an alarming danger to zookeepers and visitors alike.
Opponents of animal zoos argue that the enclosures deny an animal the freedom to roam in a natural habitat. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is an international organization, which is a strong advocate for the right of animals. The organization argues that zoos restrict animals to natural tendencies like swimming, running, flying, digging, and scavenging among others (PETA, 2015). Instead, an animal is restricted to an enclosure big enough to accommodate a sleeping and an eating-place. The animals tend to be frustrated and engage in abnormal behaviors that can be harmful. This is even fueled on by the constant number of visitors who often irritate the animals.
Majority of zoos keep the animals for entertainment purposes, which in itself is unethical. PETA’s own motto stresses the notion that animals should not be used for entertainment, experiment, or any other abusive purposes. These zoos are used as a means of achieving a certain end, which is to entertain people. According to The Captive Animals' Protection Society (2015), zoos fail to recognize the rights of animals by presenting them for human entertainment. Zoos teach people that it is right to enclose and manipulate animals for the benefits of human needs.
When animals are enclosed in a zoo, they tend to develop a condition, which PETA term as “zoochosis.” (2015). This condition makes animal behave abnormally usually walking in circles, pacing, and sometimes climbing walls. This type of behavior causes some animals to attack human beings. For instance, in 2012, a tiger from a German zoo escaped from its enclosure and mauled a female keeper to death (Parsons, 2012). In a similar case in 2007, a tiger named Tatiana from a San Francisco zoo mauled three men before killing one (Lovett, 2012). Cases of zoo attacks continue to be reported in zoos from around the world. These cases would have been prevented if these animals were allowed to stay in their natural habitat.
In conclusion, animal zoos are unethical and should be abolished. Animal right activists and welfare groups believe that zoos deny animals their right to enjoy the natural habitats and thus cannot swim, scavenge, climb, or even dig. In addition, animal zoos are often used as entertainment purp