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The Reality of Zoos
Circus Madness
WARNING - Very graphic pictures
Zoos portray themselves as centres of conservation for endangered species and for the education of the public, but many are often little more than tourist attractions where animals are imprisoned in unnatural conditions.
Although thousands of species are either threatened or endangered, only a handful are in captive breeding programmes and only a few have actually been returned to the wild with any degree of success. Only a fraction of zoos worldwide register their animals on an international species database, and just a tiny percentage of space in zoos is devoted to endangered species. Zoos often display animals they think the public will pay to see rather than those in most need of help.
The very nature of most zoos means any potential conservation efforts would be doomed to failure. Animals are often kept in unnatural social groupings and habitats. Captive breeding projects need to be as close as possible to the ultimate release site, certainly in terms of climate, habitat and fauna. The animals need space appropriate to their needs and populations large enough to provide a suitable gene pool and a natural social balance, with minimal human contact. As many animals become threatened through destruction of their habitat by humans, protection of their natural habitat is a swift and cost-effective way of reversing any decline in a species.
The sad truth is that in many cases, zoo animals are bred simply to attract visitors and publicity. Some safari parks and zoos have admitted `culling` surplus monkeys and supplying animals for experimentation. Ostriches and bison have even been sold by some zoos to farms to be reared for their meat. Others sell animals to the public as pets.
What education can there be in zoos where animals are not able to display normal behaviours due to unnatural conditions? Animals often cannot escape public view so instead turn their backs on the public or hide their faces. Birds are virtually stripped of their most precious gift - flight, often able to do little more than flutter their wings. Animals who would roam for tens of miles a day instead tread the same few paces daily. For chimpanzees, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, the infinite possibilities of the forest are exchanged for little more than playground climbing frames. In order to cover up the bareness of the animals` enclosure, zoos may paint jungle scenes or ice-flows on the wall, but this will make no difference to the empty lives of the animals.
Obsessive and repetitive behaviours(even self-mutilation) are common amongst animals in zoos as a result of frustration and boredom. Such stereotypic behaviour has also been noted in people with mental illnesses. With nothing to do, these zoo animals become psychotic. Such behaviours include pacing the same path again and again, rocking, swaying, licking the walls and chewing the bars of their pens.
Circus Madness
Animals in circuses endure long periods of confinement. For lions and tigers, home for the `season` is a cage on the back of a lorry. Horses spend most of their days in small pens or tied on short ropes. Elephants, who in the wild walk on average 12km per day, spend much of their time chained by their legs, barely able to move. It is impossible for circuses to provide appropriate facilities for such animals.
Circus animals may display mindless repetitive behaviours caused by stress, frustration and boredom. Animals will repeatedly pace, chew their cage bars or sway. Claims by circuses that animals are stimulated by performances are incorrect. In fact, the same tricks are generally repeated for years.
Methods used to train animals are questionable - who could forget the scenes of Mary Chipperfield and her associates beating and abusing animals. Elephants were beaten with sticks, a camel whipped and a young chimpanzee shouted at while she cried. Sticks, whips or goads may be used in the ring; spikes may be hidden by tassels. The audience may be oblivious to the abuse of animals going on right in front of them. Some circuses hold `open` training sessions for the public, but the real training goes on behind closed doors, away from public view.
There is no educational value in seeing these once proud animals reduced to performing tricks in an unnatural environment. What can we learn about the majestic elephant or endangered tiger sitting on podiums or jumping through hoops surrounded by bright lights and loud music? Tricks are certainly not an extension of wild behaviour. Elephants do not stand on their heads, bears do not walk on barrels and baboons do not ride ponies. Circuses simply teach a lack of respect of animals.