By Unique Sapkota
“The animals of this world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans, any more than black peoples are made for whites, or women made for men” (Alice Walker). This quote here gives us a topic to think about. Aren’t animals like humans? Animals literally feel things and have emotions to their loved ones. Animals have families too, just like humans. They live like humans in groups of their own species. It is too bad for the animals that they don’t have the same well-developed brains as humans do and must suffer now just because of that. Being developed mentally can’t just be a reason to survive from humans as black peoples were once slaves for a really long period of time. How someone looks at something has almost most of the time been a reason for their destruction in this world because humans think they rule this place and they do whatever they want to do which is really bad. Human Beings now in this modern world are forgetting that once there was a time when humans were new to this planet and they also used to live like animals in the open areas–hunting for food in the wild days. Human beings came to this planet after animals. They started to evolve fast, and from hunting and gathering they are now in this modern world where they have already reached to the moon but can’t have a voice for animals or simply feel their emotions. Animals cannot speak human languages but they are like humans. They literally have a body which consists of five senses and also have hands and legs. More to it inside the body they also have a soul just like humans. For the enjoyment and so-called protection of these animals from being extinct, the zoo is being brutal to the animals by keeping them inside a cage. They have been the new victim of this modern world where most of the humans are body conscious or awakened rather than being soul conscious. If humans were soul conscious, they would never keep animals inside a cage for the rest of their lives for their enjoyment. Most of these animals are taken away from their family members resulting in being orphans, who in this world would even like to live without their family members. If humans were really soul conscious, they would feel the same pain these kind animals go threw in everyday life, and as a result, be a voice for them. Retaining these kind and innocent animals in zoo is ethically wrong because these animals also have feeling and emotions just like humans, and they have been a profitable business for a long time and as a result have become the victim of the modern world.
Every living organism who are active can feel and also have emotions in them. Living organism like animals who are captured and taken away from their family members usually end up being lonely and away from their species. No one in this world would want to live a life where the individual is the only one of their species. Humans are a lot like animals. “Watching animals my whole life I’ve always been struck by how like us they are” (Worrall). Most of the animals have ambitions for higher status and compete to among each other’s. Like humans the animals follow the arc of a career as both tries to stay alive, get food and shelter, and raise some young for the next generation. Animals in most of the cases know who they are. They also know who their friends are and who their rivals are. “Another sheep, Clover, once scraped her hoof across my boot repeatedly when I briefly stopped massaging her back — a sheep’s way of asking for more” (Balcombe). Watching these animals pursue their wants and needs reminds that they are individuals with intentions and preferences and like humans their life matter to them too. These animals through human’s behavior react in positive or negative way towards them. Humans for their company nowadays in this modern world usually have dogs and cats as pets as they share each other’s emotions.” I was never much of a dog person because I was interested in free-living, wild animals, but I have two dogs now and I cannot believe how much I love these dogs and how much they are part of our family.” (Worrall). These pet animals like dogs know exactly who they are and they also know who the strangers are. As humans, we know when they are sad and when they are happy. These pets also get frightened sometimes by the things they are strange to. The only thing these pet animals lack is the ability to speak with humans in full sentences but these animals communicate all the time through emotions.
Humans when first came to this earth, didn’t had any clothes to wear or houses to live nor had any food to eat. They started living in groups and started to hunt for hunger. Later they became more civilized and went through a series of evolution. And now in this modern world, zoos and countries benefit from these kind and innocent animals who end up becoming a victim of captivity. “Because the Chinese government controls the bulk of the world’s pandas, zoos and city governments must negotiate with China if they want to add a panda to their zoo’s collection” (Josephson). Pandas are rare and we can only find it in China nowadays so as a result these pandas don’t come cheap. The Chinese government considering these pandas to be a high symbol by thinking that these pandas have a huge influence in cultural value, they don’t let the pandas to go to the places where they won’t be well cared. If these Chinese government agree to give the panda away to zoos it will cost a reported $1 million for mating pair and $600,000 for a cub. These are only annual costs for these pandas and if the panda somehow dies on the watch of other than Chinese people or the Chinese government, the person or the zoo has to pay a fine of $500,000.
More than 100 species of animals become extinct in the wild every day. Humans destroy their habitats, or hunt them down and the rest is done by the zoos. ” Zoos don’t buy or sell animals, they only trade”(Josephson). Zoos when there is a lot of one species they trade them with other zoos. Most of the time this results in animals being taken away from their family members or their species. This can result in animals to suffer from depression or other kind of mental problems as they have emotions and feeling towards another individual like humans do to each other. Animals are also killed if there is a big number of same species in one zoo. “I’ve since learned that European zoos often kill animals to control population size because they choose not to put captive animals on contraception, which is what North American zoos do” (Martinko). Zoos have always been a cruel place in many ways. These kind animals are taken away from their loved ones or sometimes even killed. Even if the zoos are really protecting the animals by keeping them in the zoo, it’s a pathetic and substandard existence for any animals to spend its life in captivity. Keeping animals in zoos is morally wrong but since it’s been going on for a while its normal to people. Animals are used in a wrong way in different ways. “Many billions of animals are bred merely to feed us” (Hoare) The prices of chicken is really low as it’s supposed to be but through the developed technology in this modern world animals are most of the time bred just to feed the human beings. This is sad because humans are being really selfish and not kind to these animals who don’t have a voice for themselves. Humans have been cruel to animals in a lot of ways. “A rabbit in a hutch, a dog on a lead, a cow in a field, an elephant on a concrete platform, a killer whale in a tank” (Hoare). These are a cruel thing to do because these animals are born just like Humans. They are born in the wild where they have freedom. The wild is dangerous but just because it’s dangerous it doesn’t mean that humans have to take care of them in front of them where they cage these kind animals who are supposed to be living a free life. If these animals could speak they would probably agree to die in the wild then be in the cage for rest of their life but they can’t speak and as a result these animals have become the victim of the modern world.
Animals are getting extinct in a rapid pace in this modern world and as a solution for these problems different zoos help preserve these animals but the way they are being treated and the results of these animals being protected as a good care has always been the problem. “European zoos often kill animals to control population size “(Martinko). Getting killed by the zoos if there is a vast number of same species or trading them to another zoo and making them be away from their family members and their species, these animals will get lost like the monster from Frankenstein who didn’t know what to do in various situation and it ended bad for him all the time. Zoos are the best place to preserve animals but if the zoo is not taking a good care of these animals then why should the zoos be there anyways. They are always there for the money as zoo is a profit driven business. Most of the animals who are useless to the zoos are sold to circus or to some private collectors. Many of the animals as a result of being in the zoo for a long-time end of dying inside the captivity too. When these animals are inside of the zoo they behave differently than seeing them in their own habitat in the wild. Another reason the zoo is important to humans is to learn about them because not everyone gets chance to visit their habitats, but do people really go to the zoos to learn about something new. “We weren’t there for educational purposes” (Martinko) For people going to zoo isn’t to become educated about the animals. They visit the zoo because the animal provides entertainment and it’s not a good reason to justify a life of a captivity.
In this modern world, there are different good qualities of cameras where we can watch documentaries and see picture that provides us with a very good glimpse into animal’s life. “We can now watch documentaries and see pictures that provide a very good glimpse into animal’s lives in the wild” (Martinko). Back in the day people didn’t had a good knowledge about animals so they had to visit the zoos to learn something new about the animals but now as this is a world full of technology, people can watch documentaries of these different kinds of animals and see their pictures which provides a good glimpse into their wildlife. Nowadays through the help of internet people can also research on any animals they want if they are really interested to know more about the topic. They don’t have to go to the zoos just to know more about them. Most of the people go to the zoo to entertain themselves without realizing the pain these kind and innocent animals are having in everyday life. Watching these animals, they should realize how lonely and depressed these animals are and try to be a voice for them. Think about it, if only half of the humans don’t want animals to be caged then there is a higher chance that they won’t. People travel more than ever; they go snorkeling around coral reefs, hiking through bird-filled rainforests, or even on rare African safaris. There are opportunities to see animals in their native habitats that never existed in the past. Looking at a animal is not a big thing in this modern world, people barely visit the zoos and even if they do it’s only for entertainment.
Controlling any living organism for the personal benefit is ethically a wrong thing to do as these animals are same as human beings who have feeling and emotions. Selling and trading animals with circus or other zoos have become a major problem as it results in mistreatment of these kind and innocent animals and as a result animals have become the victim of the modern world. Every living organism who are active can feel and have emotions and they also have families. Humans and animals are a lot similar as animals also follow the arc of a career as both tries to stay alive, get food and shelter, and raise some young for the next generation. But humans don’t think about how taking these cubs or parents away from each other is going to affect them mentally or emotionally in this modern world. Rather they trade or sell animals from one part of the country to the another for their own personal or country’s benefits. Zoos have always been a cruel place in many ways as animals are taken away from their loved ones or sometimes even killed. Even if humans are really protecting the animals by keeping them in the zoos it’s a pathetic and substandard existence for any animals to spend its life in captivity. Keeping animals in zoos is morally wrong but since it’s been going on for a while its normal to people. Animals are getting extinct in a rapid pace in this modern world and as a solution for this problem the zoo helps preserve these animals but the way they are being treated in there and the results of these animals being protected and taken a good care has always been the problem. Animals sometimes gets killed by the zoo if there are a lot of same species. People back then didn’t have a good knowledge about animals so they had to visit the zoos to learn something new about the animals but now as this is a world full of technology, people can watch documentaries of these different kinds of animals and see their pictures which provides a good glimpse into their wildlife. No animals would like to spend their whole life inside of a cage. Humans and animals both are same, humans are a type of animals like dogs and cats and as humans don’t want to live their life under the control of anyone so do animals. Animals are born free and supposed to be live in the wild not inside a cage. As humans have their rights so does animal and because of that they shouldn’t be in captivity.
Works Cited
Balcombe, Jonathan. “Yes, Animals Have Feelings (Op-Ed).”
LiveScience, Purch, 10 Dec. 2014, www.livescience.com/49093-animals-have-feelings.html.
Hoare, Philip. “All Zoos Should Be Closed – Other Species Have Rights | Philip Hoare.”
The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 Oct. 2017, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/02/zoos-closed-nearly-500-animals-die-four-years-zoo.
Josephson, Amelia. “The Economics of Zoos.”
SmartAsset, 25 Sept. 2017, smartasset.com/taxes/the-economics-of-zoos.
Martinko, Katherine. “Do We Really Need Zoos and Aquariums in Today’s World?”
TreeHugger, Treehugger, 12 Sept. 2017, www.treehugger.com/culture/there-still-place-zoos-and-aquariums-todays-world.html.
Worrall, Simon. “Yes, Animals Think And Feel. Here’s How We Know.”
National Geographic, National Geographic Society, 15 July 2015, news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150714-animal-dog-thinking-feelings-brain-science/.
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