Species you hate to see in zoos

Batto said:
They're easy to keep, beloved by many visitors, can be showcased in entertaining yet cost-effective scenarios (Budapest Zoo's "guinea pig village", guinea pig bridges etc.) and if necessary, you can use them as food for various carnivores. So - why the hate? What I'd like more zoos to do in regard to domestic guinea pigs would be to showcase their proper(!) husbandry to visitors to improve the situation of the many poorly kept pet guinea pigs.
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Why is Elephantlover criticized for hating guinea pigs? A few posts before, a member writes that he hates dwarf goats, and that was okay, as no one has been protesting. Goats are just boring domestic animals,a pure-wasting of space to keep them, so every real zoo enthiasiast has to agree with that fact. Well, but Elephantlover must justify himself just because he hates guinea pigs.Well, may I remind you what the thread title is? ;)By the way, I hate to see elephants in zoos-they are over represented, and it seems, they are more equal than other species.....:( My motto is-only a zoo without elphants is a good zoo...;):)

By the way- zoos keep guinea pigs only to get food for their small cats, not for educational reasons.;)
 
Bib Fortuna said:
Why is Elephantlover criticized for hating guinea pigs? A few posts before, a member writes that he hates dwarf goats, and that was okay, as no one has been protesting. Goats are just boring domestic animals,a pure-wasting of space to keep them, so every real zoo enthiasiast has to agree with that fact. Well, but Elephantlover must justify himself just because he hates guinea pigs.Well, may I remind you what the thread title is? ;)By the way, I hate to see elephants in zoos-they are over represented, and it seems, they are more equal than other species.....:( My motto is-only a zoo without elphants is a good zoo...;):)

By the way- zoos keep guinea pigs only to get food for their small cats, not for educational reasons.;)
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Ok slow down. You are saying that we should not be debating hating guinea pigs, and then you say you hate to see elephants? There are critically endangered elephant subspecies out there and you are saying you hate them enough that a roadside zoo is better than Prague or SDZ because they don't have them...
 
amur leopard said:
Ok slow down. You are saying that we should not be debating hating guinea pigs, and then you say you hate to see elephants? There are critically endangered elephant subspecies out there and you are saying you hate them enough that a roadside zoo is better than Prague or SDZ because they don't have them...
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I think he is just trying to make some sort of point and doesn't actually feel that way about elephants.

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
I think he is just trying to make some sort of point and doesn't actually feel that way about elephants.

~Thylo
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Could be interpreted by anyone to be anti elephant...
Any animal rights activist could quote that and use it as 'proof' that zoos are evil...
 
mrcriss said:
So you don't think camels are important for anything other than riding??? We don't do that in the UK...it's really frowned upon. In fact there's only one place I know of that offers it commercially and that place is a little dodgy from what i've heard. So you don't think domestic bactrians have value in educating the public about the plight of their wild counterparts?
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Well when you mention it like that, camels do have quite some importance. But why are camel ridings dodgy?
 
Elephantlover said:
I hate seeing guinea pigs. I don't feel they fit in zoos
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Define "guineapig" though , I can understand the domesticated form of the guinea pig being boring , but there are some species of the Cavies which are far more interesting and worthy of attention.

For example : The Brazilian guineapig , Shiny guineapig , montane guinea pig and of course the critically endangered Santa Caterina guineapig

Then there are some of the wider cavidae family like the rock cavy and the mountain cavies some of which are near threatened species which are interesting.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Define "guineapig" though , I can understand the domesticated form of the guinea pig being boring , but there are some species of the Cavies which are far more interesting and worthy of attention.

For example : The Brazilian guineapig , Shiny guineapig , montane guinea pig and of course the critically endangered Santa Caterina guineapig

Then there are some of the wider cavidae family like the rock cavy and the mountain cavies some of which are near threatened species which are interesting.
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My home zoo philly just got plain old Guinea pigs. Like the ones you buy at a pet store. Those are the type of guinea pigs I don’t like plain old pet guinea pigs
 
I don’t actually hate or even really dislike to see any of these animals, but some species that seem boringly common enough for me to usually gloss over include emus, blue and gold & scarlet macaws, mara and North American river otters.
On the flip side, I never really get tired (yet) of seeing meerkats or ring-tailed lemurs.
 
Elephantlover said:
Those are the type of guinea pigs I don’t like plain old pet guinea pigs
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All a matter of representation. I'm sure that you would stop dead in your tracks on your way to your beloved elephants if your local zoo presented those plain old guinea pigs like this:
Is there any profound, serious element in this playful display? Why, yes - it educates the visitors that even those plain ol' rodents are active creatures. It might even inspire them to improve the husbandry of their pet guinea pigs at home. A win-win situation for both the zoo, the visitors and animal welfare in private households.
 
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amur leopard said:
Ok slow down. You are saying that we should not be debating hating guinea pigs, and then you say you hate to see elephants? There are critically endangered elephant subspecies out there and you are saying you hate them enough that a roadside zoo is better than Prague or SDZ because they don't have them...
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No, no, you misunderstood me. It is perfectly legitimate for zoo fans to hate certain animals. I just do not understand why Elephantlover is criticized for hating guinea pigs ... And hate can't be reasoned, it only expresses a personal feeling. It doesn't matter if elephants are threatened. I still hate them for standing above all other species.:confused: I also hate apes ( by the way-these animals shouldn't be caged !) and birds, if threatend or not.
 
Batto said:
All a matter of representation. I'm sure that you would stop dead in your tracks on your way to your beloved elephants if your local zoo presented those plain old guinea pigs like this:
Is there any profound, serious element in this playful display? Why, yes - it educates the visitors that even those plain ol' rodents are active creatures. It might even inspire them to improve the husbandry of their pet guinea pigs at home. A win-win situation for both the zoo, the visitors and animal welfare in private households.
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This is awesome but I wonder if any of those cavies ever try to jump off?
 
Bib Fortuna said:
No, no, you misunderstood me. It is perfectly legitimate for zoo fans to hate certain animals. I just do not understand why Elephantlover is criticized for hating guinea pigs ... And hate can't be reasoned, it only expresses a personal feeling. It doesn't matter if elephants are threatened. I still hate them for standing above all other species.:confused: I also hate apes ( by the way-these animals shouldn't be caged !) and birds, if threatend or not.
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I really hope that hating elephants, apes and (all?) birds - puts you into a very select minority of users of this site...
 
Elephantlover said:
My home zoo philly just got plain old Guinea pigs. Like the ones you buy at a pet store. Those are the type of guinea pigs I don’t like plain old pet guinea pigs
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Those pigs are important education animals. They were raised to be education animals, and are great for teaching kids about domestication and how animals can be used by societies, especially ones different from the typical usa/euro-centric stuff kids learn in school.
 
I am against the keeping of both domestic guinea pigs and domestic rabbits in zoos. Young children will see these animals at zoos, and subsequently beg their parents to buy them one. The young child will then be left to look after their small herbivorous mammal, usually without help from their parents, apart from buying food for it. Most of these guinea pigs and rabbits meet an early demise when they are killed by a visiting dog or are accidentally trod on/dropped/hugged too roughly. Rabbits also commonly die in these conditions after contracting GI stasis or uterine cancer.
 
Cassidy Casuar said:
I am against the keeping of both domestic guinea pigs and domestic rabbits in zoos. Young children will see these animals at zoos, and subsequently beg their parents to buy them one. The young child will then be left to look after their small herbivorous mammal, usually without help from their parents, apart from buying food for it. Most of these guinea pigs and rabbits meet an early demise when they are killed by a visiting dog or are accidentally trod on/dropped/hugged too roughly. Rabbits also commonly die in these conditions after contracting GI stasis or uterine cancer.
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That's a heck of a lot of speculation. Anything to back all of that up?
 
TinoPup said:
That's a heck of a lot of speculation. Anything to back all of that up?
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Perhaps ownership of rabbits and guinea pigs is not such a tragic affair in your country, but I can assure you that where I live, the number of these animals that die of old age or an unpreventable and incurable illness is absolutely tiny.
 
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Cassidy Casuar said:
Perhaps ownership of rabbits and guinea pigs is not such a tragic affair in your country, but I can assure you that where I live, the number of these animals that die of old age or an unpreventable and incurable illness is absolutely tiny.
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Again, do you have any proof to back that up, along with linking it to parents buying them because kids saw them at zoos?
 
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