animals for entertainment

[cmcdonald5]

i am in the process of moving toward a vegan diet and life style. i don't purchase leather, animal tested goods (to my knowledge), fur, wool, or much dairy, eggs, or other animal byproducts (and one day soon i won't at all.) I also don't think circuses are ethical. however i wonder about zoos, animal shows, and things like "safaris" where you drive around and see animals (not in their natural habitat. for instance there is a safari park in tennessee that has zebras, giraffes and other zoo type animals, but they are free to roam in a really large ammount of land.) what are your thoughts? I suppose i could do more research but i'm already not going to any of these things so i guess i just thought, why do extensive research until i intend to go to one of these things. anyway it's been on my mind as of late and one day i'll have kids who want to go to the zoo or i have to sign a permission slip for them to go to the circus with their school and then i'll need to make a firm decision one way or the other.

[cstadt]

I don't lump all of those things in one category. We humans have gotten ourselves into a situation where many animals need help. Some zoos rehabilitate, take care of those that cannot be rehabilitated, and educate visitors about their plights and so on. Some zoos are just plain crap. Utter crap.

Petting zoos and shows are the same way. Some are made up of sanctuary animals and they socialize with humans, who pay to do so, and the proceeds go to the sanctuary. And of course there are other not-so-nice ones.

Circuses are notorious for being cruel, I think. I'm not aware of any that aren't cruel to the animals.

There's a video called "Earthlings" that you might be interested in watching. It's hard to watch though :(

[Sevenseas]

I think all zoos are wrong. Endangered species should be helped in ways that don't treat animals as sources of entertainment and violate their right to live free in their natural environment.

[Sewwattsnew]

http://www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org/

Places like that are wonderful places to see animals up-close, if that's the sort of thing you find yourself looking for. I visited that one in particular on vacation last year. They have a sea turtle museum, with info about turtles and how harmful litter is to the turtles, and then a sea turtle hospital where you can visit the turtles they are currently rehabing. They also had a (land) turtle who was hit by a car and who's back legs are paralyzed, who will live there for the rest of her life. The rest will be released once they're healthy enough.

[s0ad]

I don't like most zoos.

I do go to a petting "zoo" where I live every once in a while. They only take in animals that have been injured/abused/previous circus animals/food animals, etc and give them a forever home.

They let you view them and give them food. It is always very clean and the space seems adequate. The money they make from visitors is what keeps them running and helps save animals that would have otherwise died. I have no issue supporting them.

I also visit other types of sanctuaries like the one above (doesn't have to be a petting zoo).

Unfortunately I don't feel this way about most zoos. Most zoos will breed animals with no plans to reintroduce them into the wild. Many zoos also keep animals not suited to the environment so instead put them in little areas with artificial heat (or cold) and light to do a poor job imitating their environment.

I would perhaps do a safari in Africa that was in a sanctuary (if they even have this?). Otherwise I would never go on a "safari" at places like Six Flags. I also won't support any show that has an animal (like the shows at Sea World). I don't think they're very nice and the animals are not given much of a choice. I enjoy watching human performers who have chosen their line of work much better.

I find there to be few places actually wanting to help animals rather than make a quick buck.

[Mione]

I don't support most zoos. I don't support circuses at all.

I think most people at zoos just keep breeding zoo animals until they are stuck in an artificial cage for the rest of their life. I think animals can be helped such as rehabilitating and sanctuaries but most zoos don't use those as such things to help animals or teach humans about them.

The zoo I have in my city is really depressing, there isn't any information about the animals but a little sign that gives a few sentence description about them. People go to zoos for entertainment, not to learn or help. There are some that do teach and help animals but seriously, most likely, they don't. I use to love zoos but always as a kid felt bad for them because they could never go back to their 'homeland' and now as I am older I see them as for what they are. Trust your instincts, if you feel sad or sense something odd then most likely your right.

Zoos and circuses remind me of this novel I read were the aliens had taken over earth and had humans as slaves and had museums *cough similiar to zoos cough* with humans in them. The aliens would go there to observe and be entertained by the humans and the humans would be looked at as 'beautiful'. I see major similarities with humans and animals, we observe and think how beautiful they are but they can never roam free or live a well deserved life.

[cmcdonald5]

i think you guys pretty much hit it on the head about zoos. interestingly, i ended up going to that safari type thing which was sort of a misleading title but turned out to be great. There is a petting zoo area where the animals are not caged at all and then there is an area where you feed animals out of your hand from buckets of food you buy while you drive through the area. all the animals are free to roam and never killed or mistreated as far as i could tell. it really seemed like an awesome thing. there were all kinds of deer and raindeer, moose, bison, water buffalo, emus, lamas, goats, wallabees, zebras, miniature horses, chickens, pheasants, gueese, swans, ostriches, guinnies, pot bellied pigs, and all several other things. anyway i think this is perfectly acceptable but if anyone dissagrees i'd like to see the point of view they are coming from.

on another note, those of you who think animals should never be a form of entertainment, i was just wondering why/if you would be apposed to viewing animals for intertainment but when the animals are not caged, allowed to roam free and so on (as in the case with the safari i went to.) do you believe there is something wrong in principle with viewing animals as intertainment or is there something in particular about it that almost all places where animals are viewed for entertainment seem to have in common? Anyway, just curious and wanted an elaboration.