Article in today's Grauniad (with a short reply from me).
UK travel firm becomes the first to drop zoos
UK travel firm becomes the first to drop zoos
The latest anti-zoo bandwagon starts to roll?
- Thread starter gentle lemur
- Start date
I would like to follow the issue that zoos spend too little on conservation. Suppose zoos counted money spent on conservation and education as a layman would describe it: total cost of care (not just food!) for all threatened animals, and cost of education, including personal. How big a proportion would be: 50% of the total cost? I found no information so far.
The website says 3%, which is only the cost of direct donations to conservation in the field, that is national parks and reintroductions, and against the whole budget, not the profit. But zoos are unlike other charities because of very high operating costs - food, maintenance and veterinary care of animals.
Overall, it was nice that most comments were supporting zoos. Which is to be expected, because over 90% of people support zoos.
The website says 3%, which is only the cost of direct donations to conservation in the field, that is national parks and reintroductions, and against the whole budget, not the profit. But zoos are unlike other charities because of very high operating costs - food, maintenance and veterinary care of animals.
Overall, it was nice that most comments were supporting zoos. Which is to be expected, because over 90% of people support zoos.
Zoo haters often list examples of animals that have been abused in zoos. Animals should absolutely be treated with respect, sure, but letting all animals be free won't help with that. After all, wild animals don't live in a vacuum from us. At least zoos can be supervised.
More energy should be put towards helping zoos than complaining about them. Sometimes negative criticism and activism is necessary, but whenever zoos are called prisons, I facepalm.
More energy should be put towards helping zoos than complaining about them. Sometimes negative criticism and activism is necessary, but whenever zoos are called prisons, I facepalm.
devilfish
Well-Known Member
That's an interesting figure - do you know if it's still valid and whether it's supposed to be worldwide?
These days I can't imagine that the number is so high in the UK.
The reasoning for their decision is so short sighted and misinformed it is laughable. Thankfully most of the people replying (on the article site) know better and there are some well informed responses.
littleRedPanda
Well-Known Member
I was actually thinking of going on a trip with these, but wont bother now.
It was a survey from few years ago, mentioned on zoochat. It is likely it was from the UK.
It would be interesting if somebody brought together and posted a list of serious studies about zoo education, conservation and public perception. It would be useful to counteract misconceptions about zoos, and misleading one-off examples 'some zoo is good but another is bad'.
What you need to do is write to the company and tell them this.
Funnily enough, I came across this recent paper yesterday:
Clayton, S., Prévot, A. C., Germain, L., & Saint‐Jalme, M. (2017). Public Support for Biodiversity After a Zoo Visit: Environmental Concern, Conservation Knowledge, and Self‐Efficacy. Curator: The Museum Journal, 60(1), 87-100.
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cura.12188/full>
The results are similar to several other studies: zoo visitors leave more knowledgeable and resolved to support conservation. Everyone gives themselves a pat on the back. Job done then...
Except you'll get equally promising results if you ask whether people have kept their resolutions on New Year's Day, or how many times they've been to the gym the week after buying an annual membership. Good intentions aren't worth a hill of beans unless they translate into sustained lifestyle choices.
Much as I want to believe in some ecologically-minded, zoo-based conservation revolution among the general populace, I've never seen any empirical evidence for it. Worse still, as long as the industry promotes this fantasy based on misrepresenting research like the above, most zoos will continue failing to meet their educative potential.
(And, yes, I am hoping to be proven wrong here...)
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Yeah, since many zoos are non-profit, I'm pretty reluctant to criticize them for not donating enough money to wild causes. Especially if you want the zoo to have a high standard of care for the animals they hold.
Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to agree with you. Lots of people walk out of zoos not learning much, they just see them as places to look at the nice animals, and they claim that they learned a lot so they can feel good about themselves. (and to ignore any guilt they might have about visiting zoos) I mean, shoot, there are threads here dedicated to people misidentifying animals even when there are signs right in front of them, ha ha. But what really bothers me is that I see so many zoo supporters (casual ones, not like you guys here on ZooChat where you're well-informed about zoos) who walk out with the wrong idea. You've probably heard lots of people say "The environment is getting so messed up, pretty soon zoos will be the only way to save animals!". This kind of mindset isn't just wrong, it discourages conservation. Plus it makes people more likely to support sketchy facilities.
But with that said, I think zoos have a lot of unused potential. I think having more tour guides and other people guests can talk to might be useful.