Is the Dodo really anti-zoo or do they just do it for money?

ZooElephantMan

ZooElephantMan

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Is the Dodo really anti-zoo or do they just do it for money?

I found this article here, which discusses the topic in detail, but it might just be written by super mega pro-zoo activists who would rather animals be in captivity in bad conditions than in the wild:

http://www.awesomeocean.com/2015/11/13/the-dodos-great-animal-rights-swindle/

I am curious about people's thoughts. If you don't want to read the whole article, scroll down to the part where it says "Glaring Hypocrisy" and start from there.
 
I'll admit that I've sometimes been puzzled about the seemingly contradictory opinions of the Dodo founder Ms. Lerer regarding captive animals; strongly disliking zoos yet loves to ride horses and owns a Scottish fold cat. A high-priced "vanity" breed that in terms of inbreeding is about a step away from being the white tiger of domestic cats.
 
temp said:
I'll admit that I've sometimes been puzzled about the seemingly contradictory opinions of the Dodo founder Ms. Lerer regarding captive animals; strongly disliking zoos yet loves to ride horses and owns a Scottish fold cat. A high-priced "vanity" breed that in terms of inbreeding is about a step away from being the white tiger of domestic cats.
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From my understanding, the website publishes different writers with different opinions and doesn't really have an official opinion on everything. (though some views show up more than others) I don't know much about the founder of the site, but they have published articles that are cautiously supportive of zoos.

I don't much care for the site myself. They don't always do a good job of fact-checking. (I get that it's a blog and not a news site, but still) And like Wensleydale says, it's poorly run. Also there was one article where I guess a toddler pets a wild baby deer and the article is all like "LOOK AT HOW GENTLE AND FRIENDLY THIS BABY DEER IS WE SHOULD BE NICER TO ANIMALS BECAUSE THEY'RE SO NICE TO US" and I'm sitting here thinking "if that deer kicked the kid in the face you'd be writing an article about how dangerous it is to approach wild animals and how the parents of that kid are irresponsible MAKE UP YOUR MINDS".
 
@zooplantman I loved your article you posted! The one thing I didn't really like, and don't usually like when people argue about why zoos are good, is when they say they are all captive bred and stress free and won't survive in the wild anyway. And while that's all true, it's a horrible reason why zoos should exist. It just doesn't evoke feeling or power. Like if the captive bred animals won't survive in the wild, why not just let the captive populations die out, since there's no reason why they were captive bred (but that's only if this is the only argument covered) That's why I like the other arguments much more.
 
ZooElephantsMan said:
@zooplantman I loved your article you posted! The one thing I didn't really like, and don't usually like when people argue about why zoos are good, is when they say they are all captive bred and stress free and won't survive in the wild anyway. And while that's all true, it's a horrible reason why zoos should exist. It just doesn't evoke feeling or power. Like if the captive bred animals won't survive in the wild, why not just let the captive populations die out, since there's no reason why they were captive bred (but that's only if this is the only argument covered) That's why I like the other arguments much more.
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Ha ha, for real. It drives me nuts when zoo proponents try to argue that captive bred animals can never survive in the wild. That might be true for some species, but definitely not all. And if it was true, there would be no point in using captive breeding to preserve species. It's a pretty terrible argument, especially if you're simultaneously trying to argue that the captive breeding is done for conservation.
 
ZooElephantsMan said:
@zooplantman I loved your article you posted! The one thing I didn't really like, and don't usually like when people argue about why zoos are good, is when they say they are all captive bred and stress free and won't survive in the wild anyway. And while that's all true, it's a horrible reason why zoos should exist. It just doesn't evoke feeling or power. Like if the captive bred animals won't survive in the wild, why not just let the captive populations die out, since there's no reason why they were captive bred (but that's only if this is the only argument covered) That's why I like the other arguments much more.
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I think that captive bred populations might well be useful for ultimate reintroduction in places, but that today's captive bred animals are not appropriate in the sense that those animals that will be appropriate for release will probably have to be bred and conditioned for explicitly that purpose from birth, and that their release program will need to be conceived long before they are. I'm grossly oversimplifying things of course. Also there may well be many instances of trial and error and of course not every individual animal will be appropriate for such a program.
 
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ZooElephantsMan said:
@zooplantman I loved your article you posted! The one thing I didn't really like, and don't usually like when people argue about why zoos are good, is when they say they are all captive bred and stress free and won't survive in the wild anyway. And while that's all true, it's a horrible reason why zoos should exist. It just doesn't evoke feeling or power. Like if the captive bred animals won't survive in the wild, why not just let the captive populations die out, since there's no reason why they were captive bred (but that's only if this is the only argument covered) That's why I like the other arguments much more.
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Good point. To say "We have a collection of animals we have rendered unfit for release so we must exist indefinitely" is a weak defense.

wensleydale said:
I think that captive bred populations might well be useful for ultimate reintroduction in places, but that today's captive bred animals are not appropriate in the sense that those animals that will be appropriate for release will probably have to be bred and conditioned from birth for explicitly that purpose from birth, and that their release program will need to be conceived long before they are. I'm grossly oversimplifying things of course. Also there may well be many instances of trial and error and of course not every individual animal will be appropriate for such a program.
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Yes, exactly
 
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