Monday 7 January 2013

ARE ZOOS EVIL? BY THIENH TINH


Midnight, a baby tiger hid in the deep forest to escape from poachers. Its mother lay dead, killed savagely by poachers. Terrified, bewildered, anger and fear showed on his eyes. Fortunately, National Zoo Forces arrived and within 6 months, the lucky tiger was thriving in his new home – the Vietnamese Zoo. Undoubtedly, most zoos have harmful effects on wild animals but life is not always bad. As with this tiger, zoos can bring a lot of good.

Certainly, zoos have their own reasons for keeping animals. The main reason is to protect animals from dwindling and extinction. Since some rare animals have been keenly hunted in recent years, the longer they are kept in zoos, the more they will flourish. Besides, several animals have forgotten either how to survive in wild or how to breed as they have lived in zoos for generations. Especially the panda in China, which through breeding in captivity, have flourished and are no longer an endangered species.

Some also say that zoos are good for education. Modern zoos have put efforts to keep animals living in the best conditions. They even provide animals their natural habitats where animals can happily roam around. Therefore, they do not lose their natural instincts. A clear example for this is the modern Singapore Zoo, which has just won a regional prize. But there are not many such kinds of zoos. In many countries, even in Singapore Zoo, people still treat animals in cruel ways. They consider animals as one of their profit making tools through various shows, acts or performances. Audiences relax themselves through watching these poor animals doing tricks like in circuses. What a shame! Such behaviors are inhuman and make the animal suffer cruelty and illness.

In my opinion, zoos look like a kind of terrible prison. There, animals are kept in small cages which are very uncomfortable. Hence, gradually, they lose their sharp natural instincts. As you know, many zoos are founded with small budget so the condition is very bad. The floor is always dirty while the cages seem ready to collapse. Therefore, animals that live in these zoos suffer from many different kinds of disease and die earlier than others in the wild.

In conclusion, animals urgently need to be protected. There is no point just debating but not taking action. So, for the sake of all living animals in the world, from now on, we should build more quality open zoos and enforce more heavy fines for making animals perform. Because through saving animals, we are saving our planet.

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