Should zoos be closed?

49% YES 51% NO

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• Though I respect Bernie's undoubted and long evidential passion and commitment to animal rights, I've voted no to the closure of Zoos. With the recent adoption of the campaign to grant the great simians limited rights gaining support in many European parliaments, we have seen an increased awareness of the needs to consider the suffering of other sentient species. The "Great Apes" campaign found its impetus after genetic research showed how close we are to our nearest relatives and almost 40 years after the first discoveries of their ability to communicate with us using sign language proving limited linguistic and mathematical abilities. Thus, I'd argue that civilised societies are moving if very slowly to a new general conception of animal life. We ought change and expand the nature of zoos; the role they play in education, conservation & the fomenting of wider global environmental awareness. We could show the nearly extinct green turtle in its role as the only natural predator of the jellyfish which will in twenty years dominate the Mediterranean Sea and then promote regeneration programs. Returning all the zoo animals to the wild would not only ensure their deaths after their feral natures have been lost. But it would also destroy the local economies which have become the true human context of how modern western zoos are supplied. At both ends thus I would hope to point the role ¿new Zoos¿ could play in improving humanity as well as serving the long term interests be they simple survival (needs) or rights of other sentient species.
  iosaf mac diarmada  Spain
• In an increasingly desperate time for the natural world, zoological facilities have become a kind of modern Noah's Ark for the preservation of endangered and pressured species around the world. Although no containment can ever replace a natural habitat, no lost species can ever be replaced, either. In the modern age, accredited (AZA) facilities provide the best possible care in the best possible environment for imperiled species that otherwise might be lost entirely. In addition, these animals act as ambassadors for their kind, helping people that might never encounter such creatures in the wild to discover their innate love of their diverse and wonderful cousins in the animal world. We must work towards the stabilization of the natural world, rather than against zoos.
  Ben Tripp  United States
• I have visited Zoos in the past, e.g. Berlin Zoo. However, if Bernie Wright is correct then they are bad for many animals and perhaps they should be closed or restricted to animal species that don't suffer in captivity.
  Conor  Ireland
• I highly support closing of all zoos and developing care and protection in the surrounding zone of the wild forests and natural parks.
  lacroix elena  France
• According to Bernie Wright 600 animals in 60 acres works out at 100 animals per acre. "Even with limited mathematical skills" indeed. Not the only pitfall in her outdated and unhelpful opinion piece, but definitely the most entertaining and I felt it summed up the calibre of her article quite well.
  Jimmy Wiseman  Ireland
• Zoos hide behind the facade of 'conservation' and 'education'. In truth, they offer neither. The only solution to conserving animal species, is to protect their natural habitat. It has been estimated, that protecting elephants in the wild is around 50 times cheaper than keeping them in zoos. If zoos are the bastions of conservation, why are precious few of their exhibits listed as threatened? Many species are in zoos just to bring in the crowds - so-called hyper-charismatic mega fauna - and are not threatened or endangered. Ask your local zoo how many of their animals are endangered or threatened - the answer may surprise you! Ask them how many species they have reintroduced into the wild. Equally, the answer may surprise you. There is no educational value in seeing an animal in a zoo. These animals are usually no more than a caricature of their cousins in the wild. They may look like the animal, but that's where it ends. These animals are deprived of everything natural - their ability to hunt (or be hunted) or forage; their ability to naturally select breeding partners; their ability to socialise and play (yes, animals do play). Quite significantly, they are deprived of living as part of a wider eco-system and all that entails. That, and for many other reasons, is why I vote 'yes'
  Garry Sheen  United Kingdom
• Zoos should be closed they are problem to conservation and not the solution. They do nothing but harm for the individual animal or for species of animals. The captivity of animals in zoos results in unnatural displays of actions that would never be seen in the wild. These actions are the symtoms of mental illness. Zoos take animals from the wild instead and keep the exotic animal trade laws weak. This encourages exploitation of wild animals and their habitats. When the few reintroduction programs the zoos are involved in are implemented, they have sometimes resulted in the spread of disease. Instead of wasting money on so called education (people will always learn more from documentraries about how animals actually live in the wild than how they live unnaturally in zoos) and conservation(The figures speak for themselves, success rates speak for themselves, see links below) programs that are pointless, money should be invested in ensuring habitats are protected. See: http://www.captiveanimals.org/zoos/index.htm http://www.ad-international.org/animals_in_entertainment/go.php?ssi=12
  Ed  Ireland
• What can anyone learn from watching bored, frustrated animals pace around totally inadequate zoo enclosures. Saving children the bother of having to switch on the TV is a high price for animals to pay indeed, even if something were to be learned from watching them in a zoo enclosure. Margaret Grealish
  Margaret grealish  Ireland
• How in so called civilised society or how you'd rather say, XXI century, slavery is still common thing. To Ben Tripp: Alavery isn't animal's choice and it has nothin to do with bein ambassador. These beings are not there because they want to, they are there because they are enslaved just for your entertainment, just because humyns think everythin that surrounds us is created for us. BUT IT'S NOT! At any cost i wouldn't bring my child to ZOO, just to see the misery and sadness of it. Come on people, it's XXI century, slavery was abolished long ago.. Awhh and one more thing. Ben Tripp if you would love to be such an ambassador, why wont you move to a small cage and spend there rest of your life. It's so much fun, isnt'it???
  Martin Rosenberg  Ireland
• Jimmy Wiseman you are a not so smart, smart arse! Your comments don't even make sense, let alone put across any valid points. I wholeheartedly agree with Bernie Wright, zoo's are nothing less than prisons. What do we learn about animals which live in zoos, nothing, except how animals live in Zoo's! You would see the suffering if you went with an open mind, instead of thinking it is our god given right to lock up animals for our entertainment. We certainly cannot justify keeping animals in inadequate, unnatural conditions in the misguided notion that we are preserving them for the future. Maybe the sooner animals are extinct the better, humans don't deserve to share the planet with anything other than our stupid selfish selves.
  Den  United Kingdom