Do you think zoos are good places for animals?

They’re fine for what they are: a place for the public to observe wildlife in a simulacrum of its native environments. It’s educational, not a resort.
Consider: in the wild, most of those animals would be pressured every minute to survive. Tigers, for instance, only have something like a 1:40 kill ratio – many of them starve. In the zoo, they get fed a few times a week.

Zoos encourage a love of animals in kids, breeding support for conservation to help wild animals.

I am pro-zoo. I think animals in a well-run zoo are content, and if the zoo is badly run, you can tell. When I was a kid I saw a zoo elephant who would smack her head on the wall repeatedly, for hours, it was heart-breaking.

Next time you find yourself in San Diego and in possession of a large sum of money, check out their zoo. It’s fantastic.

@jaytkay That reminds me of an anteater (this very one, in fact) that I saw in a zoo once. He wasn’t injuring itself, but he had realized where the door to the enclosure – and very probably where his food came from – was. He’d pace back and forth and stand up to try to see over the gate.
He doesn’t do that anymore, so I think that they resolved the matter.

I think zoos are great. As jaykay said, there are those that are run poorly but overall I think they do a lot of good. Zoos/Aquariums expose people to a lot of animals they wouldnt see otherwise and inspire people to take up conservation as a lifestyle. True there are some animals that shouldnt/cant be kept at zoos, but some animals are really better off in the captive care as far as survival goes. lack of predators/getting fed etc. Zoos also do a lot of programs that promote the survival of these animals natural habitats and take part in trying to breed animals that are going extinct in order to keep the population alive.

I think most zoos (not all) are humane and amazing. I am a member of the AZA American Zoological Association and they work closely with member zoos and aquariums to provide accreditation that strives to offer and maintain the best and most humane care for live captive animals. So I am all for what zoos and aquariums do to care for, breed and yes exhibit these amazing animals so we all can learn to better appreciate these glorious animals and their natural habitats before we destroy not only these precious natural environments but the animals themselves as well!

I like going to the zoos and seeing wild animals from a distance. Where else am I going to go see them, in Africa out in the jungle?

Yes, the more progressive, well funded ones are.

I love zoos! Zoos even go as far to have animals ‘hunt’ for their food. I go to the national zoo all the time; it’s free!

Yes, the well run ones are. They serve as education and conservation of the wild world around us.

There is a very wide spectrum of answers here.

Some animals do well, behaviorally and emotionally, in zoos because all their needs can be met. Typically, these animals are smaller or less active and don’t have extremely complex social structures or extreme habitat requirements.

Other animals, especially large, intelligent active mammals, don’t do so well. Even the best-run zoo cannot approximate the habitat of an elephant or polar bear. It is typically in animals like these that you see the more worrisome consequences of zoo confinement- extreme stereotypy like pacing, weaving, or bobbing constantly, behavioral abnormalities and even self-mutilation.

Another hidden dark side of zoos- where do all those cute babies of overly-common species go? In many cases, to game farms, where they are then shot as trophies.

In addition, several studies have shown that zoos really don’t do a good job of educating the public. People tend to view them as entertainment, not as a learning opportunity.

I am not entirely anti-zoo. Some animals can be kept in zoos without harming their welfare. However, I believe that animals whose welfare is compromised by captivity should not be kept in captivity purely to be looked at by people.

I agree with you @crisw ..I wish there were more zoos like North Carolina Zoo.

@crisw

“Even the best-run zoo cannot approximate the habitat of an elephant or polar bear.”

That makes sense to me.

I would say another example of that would be a zebra I saw at the Barcelona zoo in Spain.
The poor animal only had about a 50-yard runway for its activity area.

Yes, most that I know of are.

The zoos these days have nice environment, and by the way, it saves endangered animals.