Should we ban the keeping of animals in zoos?
Absolutely not. In today’s world, zoos are nothing short of essential. Their main function is conservation. Without captive breeding, many endangered species would now be extinct – for example, the golden lion tamarin, red wolf and Przewalski’s horse. I am not for a moment suggesting that we should stop trying to protect animals’ natural habitats, but if endangered species were to become extinct in the wild (which sadly seems quite likely in the near future), zoos will have preserved them for future generations, with enough genetic diversity that the possibility for reintroduction to the wild exists. In my opinion it would be unforgivable to allow tigers, pandas and so on to become extinct because they were wiped out in the wild due to hunting, habitat loss, etc., and people did not want to see them in captivity. Would you like to have explain to your children or grandchildren that they will never see a tiger except in pictures, because you disagreed with zoos? I certainly wouldn’t. Zo
