I must admit that £8,000 isn't a lot of money, especially when it's compared to the cost of some zoo enclosures. One of my friends is a member of CAPS and I've had a look at their magazines. I sent an e-mail to CAPS a year ago and the respondent agreed with some of my comments, but not with others.
Many years ago, Gerald Durrell said that there would be no need for zoos in an ideal world, as there would be no endangered animal species. The reality is that there are many endangered species and zoos have helped to save some of them, although many zoos keep some species more for commercial reasons, rather than conservation reasons.
Organisations like CAPS and Born Free have helped to show problems with keeping some animals in captivity. These include stereotyped behaviour in polar bears and bare, cramped enclosures. Unfortunately, there is always the problem with what would happen if zoos did close down. I remember an episode of 'Animal Squad', where Knaresborough Zoo closed down. Most of the animals were rehoused, but two bears were killed and thrown on a skip - it was one of the saddest scenes I've seen on TV.
When London Zoo was threatened with closure 20 years ago, I was told that Virginia McKenna was seen crying outside the zoo. "What's going to happen to all the animals?" As one of the major objectives of Born Free and Zoo Check was to close down London Zoo, following the death of Pole-Pole, this seemed rather hypocritical. The fact is that if the zoos closed down, there wouldn't be space in sanctuaries to look after the animals and there aren't vast areas of protected natural habitat to release the animals into, even if all the animals could adapt to living independently.
I can't really see £8,000 going a long way to try and close down zoos, but I think it is interesting to look at alternative points of view, even if I don't agree with them, rather than just listening to the views of one side.
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