It’s Time to Lose the Zoos

By: Silvia Parrales Vega

“Zoos are prisons for animals, camouflaging their cruelty with conservation claims.” These words are from Bindi Irwin, a woman that preserves a zoo at the young age of 22. The government should close zoos because the animals are on display to the public as if they are objects, they are not in their natural habitat, and lastly, a lot of people, mostly kids, disturb them.
The zoos should close because they have the animals on display like they are objects in a museum. They are behind bars like people in jail, as if they did something bad, but they did not. It’s true that the staff might try to help them when they are aggressive, but that does not truly benefit them. They deserve the ability to do their own thing. That is why they were born in the wild. They do not deserve to be locked up in a “jail” for being who they were born to be.
They are also not in their natural environments. They were born to get their own food by hunting, not for someone to give them the food like as if they are children. The zoos are not helping the animals, they are just hurting them. If zoos keep taking all of the animals from the wild, there will not be animals left that are free. There will no longer be animals to see when you are in the countryside.
They are also very disturbed. People think it is fun to make weird noises while they are sleeping or while they are resting, eating, or just walking around. The animals need their personal space and their time to do things. Just because you want to see an animal walk doesn’t mean you can disturb him. Imagine you were the animal. How would you like to be treated?
In conclusion, the zoos should close because the animals are on display as if they are inanimate objects, not living creatures. The zoos are keeping wild animals from being in their natural habitats. Lastly, people are treating them like they were their toys by disturbing them for their own enjoyment.