Animal’s Behind Bars: What Should Change?

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Animals behind bars
Introduction
The United States considers itself to be a compassionate and God fearing country. However, imprisoning wild animals in zoos, aquariums and parks from birth to death for commercial purpose is neither compassionate nor God fearing. Animals confined in zoos lack almost everything that their mates in the wild experience. This includes sufficient environment to roam and play and the opportunity to willingly select whom to mate and share the environment with. In fact, while in captivity, all elements of their lives are influenced through various control measures. Wild animals belong in the wild and not in zoos and sanctuaries, where their safety and well-being are not prioritized. As a result, this paper calls on the Mayors and city councils to formulate mechanism of shutting down all zoos in their jurisdictions.
Due to insufficient space in zoos, parks, and aquariums, tigers repeatedly run round the length of their confinements hoping to get a larger and more suitable environment. On the other hand, birds can barely spread their wings because they are forced to share small cages with other birds. In addition, bears are forced to stand on concrete floor. The few that are lucky leave marks of their paws in the dirt because they step there again and again. For Dolphins, rather than enjoying the whole ocean, they are forced to swim in endless circles in small tanks. As a result of lack of activities, many chimpanzees decide to chew their own body parts such as fingers until they start bleeding. Hence, the unmitigated monotony of captive animals’ existence goes far beyond mere boredom.
Therefore, it is obvious that parks and zoos cannot offer the type of environment that the wild offers wild animals. This is particularly true for animals that are accustomed to larger territories such as fish, tigers and elephants. While comparing zoos and parks to the wild, lions and tigers are approximated to have 18,000 times less space. On the other hand, Polar bears are estimated to have one million times less space (Van Tuyl, 68). As a result, animals in parks, zoos, and aquariums display unusual characteristics that indicate psychological stress and torture such as bar biting and injuring themselves. Therefore, zoos of all kinds are barbaric, if not outdated. Animals are not specimens to be gawked at, kept like stuffed dolls on display.
However, specialists working at zoos and aquariums claim that the dangers of the wild are so great that animals are safer in confinements. In fact, they claim that such facilities foster interest in animals and the natural world in young people. Nevertheless, think about dinosaurs. No child has ever seen a dinosaur in the flesh, yet children across the world are enchanted by them: their club-like tails, the spikes starring their spine. Therefore, it is not proximity that inspires interest in young people, but distance. Knowing that animals exist not near us but, rather, deep in their own habitat allows them mystique. Hence, the distance that creates this anxiety allows animals the lives they are meant to have.
In addition, wild animals are biologically created to adapt to their surroundings. For...