this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2026
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Comic Strips

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[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't fault your rationale; I've been to a couple sad zoos. They definitely exist and should be shut down, and some animals will just never do well in captivity. There are still specific animals I think about years later and I hope they are in better places now.

But I just did a private tour of a really great zoo's operations, and I work wildlife rehab where we need to keep animals in captivity for months many times, and some mind it a lot less that others, and some will come back to visit after being released. Animals face a lot of danger and scarcity of resources in the wild, and in captivity, those things are no longer problems. We often picture animals having these wonderful lives of peace and freedom, but we forget about predation, going hungry for days, either not having or constantly having to defend shelter, and how catastrophic even minor injuries or just getting old can be.

There are mandated standards for shelter, animals get individual care plans, giving them the best of food and medicine, they get protection from extreme weather, they often get to choose mates and get to raise their young in much safer and less stressful conditions, and when they get old or lose teeth, etc they still get regular meals, shelter, and nicely heated or cooled places to rest.

Are they captive? Yes. But well-run places aren't miserable for many animals. Maybe at worst like an all-inclusive resort where they tell you not to leave because outside the resort area it gets rough fast or house arrest when you're a millionaire. Zoo animals inspire a lot of people to get involved with conservation or animal care. At my place, we do let the animals go when they are ready. Most of my coworkers seem to think seeing them go free is the best part. Honestly, I worry about all the animals I release. I saw what got them nearly killed to begin with, and I'm sending them back into that world where most things will want them dead, and there are so many human-based hazards they don't understand. Staying with us would likely at least double all their lifespans. They lose a ton of perks when they leave out care. But my job is to make sure they get fixed up and back to nature. I debate whether I'd rather explore more medical opportunities or to see into animal education, since those animals are unreleasable. Either way, I'm here helping them because of all the amazement I got from nice zoos and aquariums.

[–] marighost@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There are some amazing zoos that exist! Here in North Carolina we're lucky to have the NC Zoo, the world's largest natural habitat zoo. It's a decent enough hike to get through the entire zoo in one day because the enclosures are spread across a huge acreage where the animals actually have their relatively normal areas to spread out and be enriched properly. They do incredible conservation work, too.

I'm sorry to anyone who has had poor experiences with zoos. Once, I visited a relative in Virginia when I was younger and went to whatever the local zoo was, and it was horrible. Animals in tiny, simple enclosures. They had a couple of rhinos that only had like.. an acre? ish? to roam around in. I remember looking at my dad and saying "This place is really small..." because I had been to the NC Zoo a few times before.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Aww, I didn't know about the NC Zoo being so cool. I went right through that area and didn't know.

The place I just visited in New York was well incorporated into the local landscape. The first animal we got introduced to there was the river otter at the entrance. I wouldn't have even known it was an exhibit, it was a sectioned off area of the stream running through the park and it looked like it was just meant to keep larger local wildlife out of the zoo.

The otter (Scooter was her name) came when the keeper called her, she followed us back to the area where they check on her and feed her, and she was having the happiest zoomies!

All the other areas looked larger than they likely were required to be, and every animal looked relaxed, and we got to interact hands-on with a few, and they were all very chill.

The worst zoo I was ever at was one near my home. A coworker wanted to go, as they had a baby tiger advertised, which was her fav animal. I was curious where this zoo was, since the area wasn't where I'd picture us getting more than a very small zoo.

It was inside a building in an industrial park! We were both kinda sketched out, but she really wanted to see the tiger, so we went in. It felt like a smuggling operation. Everything was indoors in pens that looked meant for transport. Animals were all very obviously depressed. Not a single thing in there appeared relaxed. We quickly got out of there, and it was thankfully shut down that same summer.

Now that I've worked with animals for a bit, I talk to the keepers about more details of their care, and what regulations they deal with and what rehab or conservation projects they're involved with, and can appreciate a lot of what goes on other than the exhibits, and it's so obvious how much these keepers care about their animals and the support they provide to get animal populations up to return animals to the wild. I don't think anyone would picture animal care as some get-rich type career, it's stinky and dirty work where you can potentially be hurt by animals. These people are there because they care about animals. Some owners I think may give into temptation and cross over into collecting more animals than they have capacity to care for, and then that becomes the problem, but I have gone to many zoos in many states, and there's maybe been 2 or 3 that have been meh, but most are pretty cool. I think zoo haters have either been sadly unlucky and their first one was a crappy one, they just humanize animals in an unrealistic way, or they don't consider the conservation programs they participate in that involve many more animals than are in display.