I’m drenched by a feeling of sadness when I think of zoos, though this wasn’t always so. When I was a child I went the zoo with a naive curiosity. It was smelly, and you couldn’t touch or feed the animals, which as a child, is what you want to do, of course. But it was something to do, and a day out for the all the family. I hear people say their children would be missing out if they didn’t go to the zoo, but looking back through child’s eyes, I disagree. I have memories far fonder of other things, things like hot hazy days on the beach in Wales and Cornwall building sand castles with moats that would fill up with water before the tide reached the castle, and being flung about with my body board by cold exhilarating waves that were bigger than me. Or swimming lessons with my aptly named swimming teacher Julie Shark every Friday night, which were preceded by half an hour of diving and bobbing around under water in the deep end, silently, and in a world of my own where I was a mermaid, followed by chippy treat of chips, rice and gravy in front of a warm fire at home with my family. Or the escapism of watching the magical Wizard of Oz on repeat in my own pair of ruby slippers with Spit the Dog as my Toto beside me, and singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow while swinging on my parents front gate like Dorothy does in the opening to the movie when it’s still black and white. Or jumping over the gates of the primary school across the road with my mum, dad, brother, auntie, uncle and cousins to play cricket and rounders on the school field on summer weekends, ever eager for my turn to bat. The zoo, I can barely remember.
There was one time I went to London zoo as an adult – a twenty two year old to be exact – with my friend Sharmaine and her friend Nicolas. Mostly, it was somewhere novel to talk about life and catch up, although I do remember some zoo related discussion – a debate about who would win in a fight, a lion or a tiger, and a conversation about what we would do if the lions or tigers escaped while we were there. I fed a lama a leaf and got told off by the zoo staff and we strolled briefly through the butterfly enclosure in awe. The rest is a blur of forgotten memories. I mainly remember this trip to the zoo because it was the day before the last time I ever saw my first love. That was a whole fourteen years ago now, and it was also the last time I ever visited a zoo.
So many forgotten memories of the zoo. All those animals, confined unnaturally in small quarters for nothing but vague, blurry memories. Back then, I never really stopped to think about the animal’s experiences, or maybe I did, but not deeply enough. I remember thinking how absurd it was that tigers were kept in cages and lions were penned in behind glass walls for us to gawp at, because even as a child, I knew lions ran wild and fast across the open savanna. This was not something I learned at the zoo, but from watching wildlife documentaries. I learned far more from David Attenborough documentaries and even from the book my nephew was so obsessed with that compared every conceivable animal to the size of a blue whale. That’s because the raison d’etre of the zoo is not education, nor conservation. The reason a zoo exists is to make money, and it does this by providing entertainment.
I really started to think about the experience of the zoo from the animals perspective when I did my Conservation and Development module on my masters degree. As the brilliant Daniel Brokington opened up my eyes to the commodification of nature and the extractive-destructive nature of capitalism which promotes consumption based solutions to environmental problems, I started to see the zoo in a different light. Through this paradigm, the zoo is a Spectacle, full of small enclosures that have been fashioned into environments that are not directly lived by animals in the wild, but are only representations of them, staged and faked; living, contrived images almost, that separate us from the real world, from true nature. They are repetitive ranges of mega fauna, hardly representative of the true biodiversity of our planet. They are therefore clearly not educational, but leave us with a distorted view of wildlife, wildlife that appears to us as commodities. The Spectacle of the zoo mediates our relationship with nature, with the animals and with ourselves. As spectators we are elevated as superior, and the animals as lesser – objectified; images; entertainment. The bars which architecturally divide us from the animals on display simultaneously divide us, psychologically, from our own animality (see Steve Bests essay on zoos for more info). The animals are separated from us physically but this also reinforces in our minds the difference between us. They are behind bars and we are free to come and go as we please to look at them because we are superior, and they are lesser. This reaffirms our perception of our humanity as separate from the animal kingdom, as above it. This is such a curious point for me. There is a human ego need to make meaning from life by self conceptualising greatness, legacy, and superiority. But in truth, we are human animals, with the same nervous system, the same response to fear and the same desire for wellbeing as non-human animals.
The Spectacle of the zoo is carefully constructed: it tells us what it’s creators want us to know, and hides from us those things they wish to conceal. The misery, restriction, and departure from authentic behaviour of the animals in the zoo is not revealed to the voyeur. It is not revealed that conservation efforts, which are mostly off site therefore rendering the zoo itself unnecessary, constitute a tiny minority of the work of zoos, concentrate mainly on species the zoo see as profitable, rather than those critically endangered, and have done little to halt the sixth mass extinction crisis which continues despite their efforts. It is not revealed that animals have been observed exhibiting stress behaviours like self mutilation and pacing, due to their unnatural and restrictive habitats, close proximity to predators, and endless intrusion from customers. Spectators are not told that zoo animals often show unnatural aggression, or stalled maturation. They don’t tell us that animals can live a fraction of their natural life span when confined in captivity. We aren’t told either, about the culling that ensues when too many babies are produced as a result of breeding programs; that these violent lives and deaths at the zoo are completely at the mercy of business owners, or that zoos have been used to launder animals in the illegal wildlife trade. Nor are we told about the invisible history of the zoo: the zoo represents some of the more reprehensible sides of our cultural history – imperialism and empire, power and wealth, where the animals on display are symbolic of dominion over the lands they were originally stolen from. Horrifically, zoos have in the past featured human displays too.
The interesting thing when you really consider the reasons a trip to the zoo is fun for most people isn’t the superficial pleasure of seeing objectified mega fauna and other animals behind bars all conveniently in the same place. It’s the wonder at the majesty of and communion with nature. It’s the happiness that comes from human connection of spending quality time with family and friends. It’s absorbing the focus and joy of your children as they engage with something new or exiting. These are not things that are only possible through a visit to the zoo.
If you really want your children to connect with animals, take them to an animal sanctuary and experience the joy of affinity with an individual animal and learn his or her story, or adopt a dog or a cat from a local sanctuary and teach your child how to love one of nature’s creatures as a member of the family. Escape in the brilliant David Attenborough wildlife documentaries. It’s so interesting that we have become so alienated from the natural world that our sentimental attachment to it seems to need to be exotic in order for it to be perceived as nature (Frykman and lofgren). Go to the local woods and sit still and in silence among the trees until you become part of the landscape and the wildlife no longer fear your presence. Or maybe explore the park and your local wildlife, and spot butterflies, bees, squirrels, insects, deer and birds, for they are as, if not more unfamiliar and unexplored than lions and tigers and bears. Take a trip to the beach and get lost in the expanse of the open, raw, grandeur and simplicity of the ocean. Paddle in the sea and build castles from sand with your family, and search for sea creatures in rock pools to admire under the sun or clouds.
By teaching children the problems with zoos and showing them other ways of learning about and connecting with nature, instead of missing out, they are gaining enrichment; compassion for animals and nature. Gift them the ability to care for others as individuals; not to objectify others, to see the world, people and animals as commodities to be used for their own entertainment. Don’t subject them to a warped understanding of the place of humans in nature – superior, and entitled to use animals as things. No animals need to suffer for you to experience wonderful connections with life, with your family, or with nature, of which you yourself are a part.
Want to know more? Here are some great resources:
“Somethin’ Tells Me It’s All Happening at the Zoo”: Discourse, Power, and Conservationism by Tema Milstein is a great read. Zoos and Animal Welfare by Christine Van Tuyl is an easy to read, comprehensive, good all round book. Against Zoos, by Dale Jamelson nicely outlines the for an against sides of the zoos argument, discussing all facets of the arguments, landing on the against in conclusion. A different Nature: The Paradoxical World of Zoos and Their Uncertain Future by David Hancocks Chapter Seven is a worthwhile read as it explains a little about the conservation credentials of zoos. Managing Love and Death at the Zoo, the Biopolitics of Endangered Species Preservation by Matthew Chrulew is an excellent read and critique of zoos. Likewise, Zoos and The End of Nature by Steven Best is an interesting article from an animal rights perspective, and you will find other zoo related articles on his website.
If you would like to read some academic articles on the subject, I’ve listed some below.
On ‘Unnatural’ Behaviour and Animal Suffering In Zoos
- Lathama, N. and Mason, G. 2010. Frustration and perseveration in stereotypic captive animals: Is a taste of enrichment worse than none at all? Behavioural Brain Research 211: 96–10.
- Wells, D. L. 2005. A note on the influence on visitors on the behaviour and welfare of zoo-housed gorillas. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 93 (1-2): 12-17.
- Mason, G. J. 1991. Stereotypies: a critical review. Animal Behaviour 41: 1015-1037.
- Mason, G. J. and Latham, N. R. 2004. Can’t stop, won’t stop: is stereotypy a reliable animal welfare indicator? Animal Welfare 13: 57-69.
- Morabito, P & Bashaw, M. J., 2012, A Survey of Abnormal Repetitive Behaviours in North American River Otters Housed in Zoos. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 15 (3): 208-221.
- Norton, B. G., Hutchins, M., Stevens, E. F., and Maple, T. L., 1995. Ethics on the Ark: Zoos, Animal Welfare, and Wildlife Conservation.
- Washington: Smithsonian Institution Rajagopal, T., Archunan, G. and Mahadevan, S. 2011. Impact of Zoo Visitors on the Fecal Cortisol Levels and Behavior of an Endangered Species: Indian Blackbuck (Antelope cervicapra L.). Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 14 (1): 18-32.
- Shepherdson, D. J., Carlstead, K. C., and Weilebnowski, N. 1994. Cross Institutional Assessment of Stress Responses in Zoo Animals Using Longitudinal Monitoring of Faecal Corticoids and Behaviour. Animal Welfare 13: 105-113.
- Shepherdson, D. J. et al. 2013. Individual and Environmental Factors Associated with Stereotypic Behaviour and Fecal Glucocorticoid Metabolite Levels in Zoo Housed Polar Bears. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 147: 268–277.
On Laundering and Breeding Programs:
- The Extinction Market: Wildlife Trafficking and How to Counter It
- Snyder, N. F. R., Derrickson, S. R., Beissinger, S. R., Wiley, J. W., Smith, T. B., Toone, W. D. and Miller, B. 1996. Limitations of Captive Breeding in Endangered Species Recovery. Conservation Biology, 10: 338–348. doi: 10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10020338.x
- Jamieson, D. 2006. Against zoos. Pages 132–143 in P. Singer, editor. In defence of animals. Blackwell, Oxford
- Jamieson, D. 1995. “Zoos revisited”. In Ethics on the ark: Zoos, animal welfare, and wildlife conservation, Edited by: Norton, B.G., Hutchins, M., Stevens, E.F. and Maple, T.L. 52–68. Washington, DC and London: Smithsonian Institution Press.
On Educational Credentials
- Moss, A. and M. Esson. 2012. The educational claims of zoos: Where do we go from here? Zoo Biology, 32(1):13–18.
- Nell Carr and Scott Cohen, The Public Face of Zoos: Images of Entertainment, Education and Conservation. Anthrozoos, 24, 2011, 175-189.
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