Would be intrested in your opinon about this article ! :
Top 5 Misleading Claims Zoos Make | One Green Planet
Top 5 Misleading Claims Zoos Make | One Green Planet
Misleading zoo claims
- Thread starter vogelcommando
- Start date
I'll take a shot:
1. Its true that most captive breeding programs are not completely successful (I don't think not meeting all its goals equals unsuccessful). But the authors take a lot of liberty to speculate why they have not met their goals and fail to see the whole picture. Also zoos don't really have authority to reintroduce animals back into the wild. Wildlife management is most often a function of government, and zoos only provide animals when necessary. Its not really a decision for zoos to make. So again speculation without looking at the whole picture.
2. Its true that there has been no study to prove that zoos change visitors' behavior. But its also a pretty strong claim to say animals exhibit no natural behaviors in zoos - that's far from the truth. Not sure how keeper safety is correlated to visitor education. It is a hazardous job. But what person has not been bitten or injured by the animals they live with? Or no one has a a dog run away before?
3. Well there is nothing false in this section. I can't think of a single person or industry that doesn't have issues or accidents happen. I would claim that zoos are no different from hospitals when it comes to the level of care (I have no evidence, but they both have similar problems when it comes to health care).
4. Not much to dispute here. Zoo design is still a work in progress. But a brand new exhibit will not "cure" an animal's stereotypic behavior overnight. Zoo opponents have little patience.
5. Author didn't complete their homework again. This article doesn't mention the across-the-board financial threat to all zoos (particularly in the US) of loosing public funding from budget cuts. Zoo expenses grow every year, and they need to ensure future revenues. They certainly are not making large profits that zoo opponents tend to suggest.
Concerning the Nat'l Zoo, the director did make a political statement concerning their funding. Its often important to look at whole picture in addition to the details - the major funding source for the zoo is often threatened by the US Congress (though not directly from my understanding).
Concerning employee salaries...its usually just a few employees that are highly paid. I really don't think zoos mislead people about zoo director salaries, I often see those figures in news articles. But the author doesn't actually show any complete budget numbers from a zoo (which are usually publicly available in annual reports which are often found on most zoo websites). I certainly don't have the time to comprehensively to review all zoo budgets.
Certainly depending on your perspective, there may be times when one may feel mislead by a zoo. But I really can't see too many zoos misleading people to the degree that this author has mislead readers of her article. This piece is complete spin, with little validity to the author's claims.
1. Its true that most captive breeding programs are not completely successful (I don't think not meeting all its goals equals unsuccessful). But the authors take a lot of liberty to speculate why they have not met their goals and fail to see the whole picture. Also zoos don't really have authority to reintroduce animals back into the wild. Wildlife management is most often a function of government, and zoos only provide animals when necessary. Its not really a decision for zoos to make. So again speculation without looking at the whole picture.
2. Its true that there has been no study to prove that zoos change visitors' behavior. But its also a pretty strong claim to say animals exhibit no natural behaviors in zoos - that's far from the truth. Not sure how keeper safety is correlated to visitor education. It is a hazardous job. But what person has not been bitten or injured by the animals they live with? Or no one has a a dog run away before?
3. Well there is nothing false in this section. I can't think of a single person or industry that doesn't have issues or accidents happen. I would claim that zoos are no different from hospitals when it comes to the level of care (I have no evidence, but they both have similar problems when it comes to health care).
4. Not much to dispute here. Zoo design is still a work in progress. But a brand new exhibit will not "cure" an animal's stereotypic behavior overnight. Zoo opponents have little patience.
5. Author didn't complete their homework again. This article doesn't mention the across-the-board financial threat to all zoos (particularly in the US) of loosing public funding from budget cuts. Zoo expenses grow every year, and they need to ensure future revenues. They certainly are not making large profits that zoo opponents tend to suggest.
Concerning the Nat'l Zoo, the director did make a political statement concerning their funding. Its often important to look at whole picture in addition to the details - the major funding source for the zoo is often threatened by the US Congress (though not directly from my understanding).
Concerning employee salaries...its usually just a few employees that are highly paid. I really don't think zoos mislead people about zoo director salaries, I often see those figures in news articles. But the author doesn't actually show any complete budget numbers from a zoo (which are usually publicly available in annual reports which are often found on most zoo websites). I certainly don't have the time to comprehensively to review all zoo budgets.
Certainly depending on your perspective, there may be times when one may feel mislead by a zoo. But I really can't see too many zoos misleading people to the degree that this author has mislead readers of her article. This piece is complete spin, with little validity to the author's claims.
The lady who wrote this article should consider the old saying 'the exception proves the rule'. Of course it's not always true, but there are very few rules without exceptions.
People who can't tell the difference between the exceptions and the rule are less than sane; people who tell others that the exceptions are really the rule become dangerous demagogues.
Alan
People who can't tell the difference between the exceptions and the rule are less than sane; people who tell others that the exceptions are really the rule become dangerous demagogues.
Alan
Agreed. And to add on...
1. A lot of the animals that have been helped from zoo breeding programs aren't the high-profile animals like tigers and elephants, so people who don't pay much attention to zoos are less likely to notice. And yeah, I really don't get why people seem to act like zoos have the authority to release their animals. Even if they did, there are a number of factors one needs to take into account before trying to release some animals into the wild. Is there enough room for these animals? Habitat loss is a big reason many animals are on the endangered species list; a zoo can't work to release animals if there's no place to release them. Poaching is another issue that a lot of places still need to work out. There's no point in releasing a zoo rhino to the wild if it's just going to be killed for its horn right away.
2. Lots of zoos have been working hard to come up with things to encourage natural behavior in their animals, and things are getting better all the time. I hear more zoos are experimenting with letting certain carnivores hunt live food; I really hope that catches on. As for zookeeper safety, well, they're working with wild animals. There will always be risk. Even park rangers who have to get close to animals, or handle them, can get injured.
3. Judge on a zoo-by-zoo basis. I don't think it's fair to say "all zoos are bad" based on stuff done by individual zoos. There are plenty of really terrible animal sanctuaries, but I'm not about to condemn all animals sanctuaries. Lots of bad pet owners, but that doesn't mean we should get rid of pet ownership as a whole.
4. Agreed. You can't stop stereotypic or other types of negative behavior right away, even with the best exhibits or sanctuaries and top-of-the-line care. Hell, when I first adopted my dog she exhibited behavior that suggested her previous owner abused her. Even though we treated her well, it took YEARS for some of that behavior to stop, and she still exhibits some of it from time to time. (we've had her for about 10 years now)
5. There are a lot of non-profit zoos. I recently applied for a food service job at the San Antonio Zoo, and the woman interviewing me was talking on and on about how important the food and gift shop jobs were because the zoo was non-profit and the money made from those places went right back to maintaining the zoo and caring for the animals. It's not really fair to suggest that all zoos are in it for the money, considering that so many zoos rely heavily on private donations. And yeah, I don't think it's fair to talk about the high salaries of a few employees without mentioning the zoo budget as a whole.
