Animals should not spend their entire lives in captivity simply to fulfil our want to see them. Here are our superlative ten facts about zoos that y'all need to know...

1. Zoos are miserable places for animals

This dead wallaby was left to rot by staff at Tweddle Farm Zoo for two weeks and
the zoo refused to behave out a post-mortem to establish why the animate being died

In 2010, a Liberty for Animals surreptitious investigator filmed sick animals left untreated and dead animals to rot on floors atTweddle Farm Zoo. Freedom for Animalshad to take rabbits to a vet to have infections treated and later on our expose local police confiscated a monkey who had been kept alone and given block and other junk food to eat.

Think safari parks are meliorate than 'traditional' zoos? Woburn Safari Park was keeping its lions locked into minor enclosures for eighteen hours a day . A government zoo inspection report in 2010 said: "The animals were very crowded and there was no provision for individual feeding or sleeping areas. At that place was no visible ecology enrichment. Some of the lions exhibited skin wounds and multiple scars of various historic period, some fresh, some healed."

In belatedly 2012, some other safari park was shamed as W Midland Safari Park was exposed for providing white lion cubs to a notorious circus animal trainer , who sent them to a traveling circus in Nihon. The Lions remain in the circus today.

A government-funded study of elephants in UK zoos constitute "there was a welfare concern for every elephant in the United kingdom." 75% of elephants were overweight and only 16% could walk commonly, the remainder having diverse degrees of lameness. Less than xx% were totally gratis of human foot problems[1].

two. Zoos tin can't provide sufficient space

Zoos cannot provide the amount of space animals have in the wild. This is particularly the case for those species who roam larger distances in their natural habitat. Tigers and lions take around 18,000 times less space in zoos than they would in the wild. Polar bears accept one meg times less space[2].

3. Animals endure in zoos

A government-funded written report of elephants in Great britain zoos institute that 54% of the elephants showed stereotypies (behavioural  bug) during the daytime. One elephant observed during solar day and night stereotyped for 61% of a 24-hr catamenia[3].

Lions in zoos spend 48% of their time pacing, a recognised sign of behavioural problems[iv].

4. Animals dice prematurely in zoos

African elephants in the wild alive more than than three times as long as those kept in zoos. Fifty-fifty Asian elephants working in timber camps alive longer than those born in zoos[5].

xl% of lion cubs die earlier one month of age. In the wild, only thirty% of cubs are thought to die earlier they are six months one-time and at least a third of those deaths are due to factors which are absent-minded in zoos, similar predation[half-dozen].

5. Surplus an imals are killed

A Freedom for Animalsstudy found that at least 7,500 animals – and possibly as many as 200,000 – in European zoos are 'surplus' at any one fourth dimension.

Animals are regularly 'culled' in U.k. zoos. In 2006 the whole pack of wolves at Highland Wildlife Park were killed subsequently the social construction of the pack had cleaved down. In 2005 two wolf cubs and an adult female were shot dead at Dartmoor Wildlife Park. The vet reported: "Selective cull due to overcrowding and fighting in the pack" and "Further cull of cubs needed". In 2001 a DEFRA zoo inspection of Dartmoor Wild animals Park in October 2001 constitute that "several significant dead animals" were stored in a food freezer "for taxidermy in the future".

The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) said in 2007 that member zoos were being actively encouraged to kill unwanted animals, including tigers, if other zoos did non want them and if they were hybrids. It said that such animals take upward space and keeper time[7].

In 2010, zoo trade bodies rallied to the defense of a German language zoo which was prosecuted for breaching animal welfare laws later it killed iii tiger cubs because they were not pure-blooded (hybrid)[8].

In 2011, an exposé of Knowsley Safari Park led by Freedom for Animalsfollowing data provided past a whistleblower showed the safari park to exist in contravention of legislation on disposal of carcasses equally well equally raising queries over treatment of firearms. A former employee of the safari park alleged: "culling was existence used as a means of traininginstead of existence carried out in the kindest and near humane style."

In early 2014, at that place was global outrage when Copenhagen Zoo killed a healthy immature giraffe chosenMarius. The event triggered a worldwide debate on culling in zoos and it was admitted past zoo spokespeople that thousands of healthy animals are deliberately killed in European zoos alone each year.

half dozen. United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland zoos are connected to animal circuses

These lions were sent as cubs from West Midland Safari Park to a circus trainer

Freedom for Animalsexposed a U.k. zoo in 2009 that was a member of the trade torso BIAZA (which supposedly upholds the highest standards) as having abreeding connectedness with a controversial animate being circus. Noah's Ark Zoo Farm had been breeding camels from the Great British Circus for several years and in 2009 obtained three tigers from the circus.

A female tiger at the zoo had three stillborn cubs and another who died at 3 weeks old. The mother besides died.

The same zoo was found to doing business concern withanother circus animal trainerin 2013. This was the aforementioned trainer who had been sold king of beasts cubs byWest Midland Safari Parkand sent them to a traveling circus in Japan.

vii. Animals are trained to perform tricks

Many zoos train animals to perform tricks as if they were in a circus. Performing body of water lions, birds and elephants can be seen at many United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland zoos.

Some training of elephants has been done using electric goads. Freedom for Animals infiltrated a training session held at Blackpool Zoo in 1998 and filmed elephants beingness trained to lift their feet and caput, agree sticks in their mouths and jabbed with elephant hooks in the shoulder and head.

In 2010 it was revealed that an elephant at Woburn Safari Park had previously been trained using an electric catalyst [9].

Blackpool Zoo proudly publicised its training of a baby sea lion for shows in mid 2013 [10]. This is in spite of the fact that the UK Government has agreed to ban like shows in circuses on the footing that: "we should feel dut y-bound to recognise that wild animals have intrinsic value, and respect their inherent wildness and its implications for their treatment".

8. Animals are however taken from the wild

In 2003 the Britain authorities gave permission for the capture of 146 penguins from a British territory in the S Atlantic (Tristan da Cunha). Those who survived the vii-twenty-four hours boat journey from Tristan to a wildlife dealer in South Africa were sold to zoos in Asia [11].

In 2010, Zimbabwe planned to capture 2 of every mammal species establish in Hwange National Park and send them to Northward Korean zoos. This included rhinos, lions, cheetahs, zebras and giraffes as well equally ii 18-calendar month-erstwhile elephants. The plan was just stopped after international pressure level by a coalition of organisations including Freedom for Animals.

lxx% of elephants in European zoos were taken from the wild [12].

A Liberty for Animals study found that 79% of all animals in United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland aquariums were caught in the wild. Bounding main Life aquariumsadmitted to taking animals from the wild as recently as 2013, only refused to provide information on how many of the animals held past them were wild-caught.

9. Zoos don't serve conservation

Zoos claim to brood animals for eventual release to the wild simply breeding programmes are primarily to ensure a captive population, not for reintroduction.

Lions are popular in zoos, but the vast majority "are 'generic' animals of hybrid or unknown subspecific condition, and therefore of little or no value in conservation terms [thirteen].

Keeping an intelligent, complex and social animal like a chimp in a Britain zoo
does aught to protect his relatives threatened in the wild

Zoo director David Hancocks said: "There is a commonly held misconception that zoos are not just saving wildlife from extinction but also reintroducing them to their wild habitats. The defoliation stems from many sources, all of them zoo-based… In reality, near zoos have had no contact of whatsoever kind with any reintroduction program."[14]

Captive breeding is considered past some conservation scientists to be a diversion from the reasons for a species' decline, giving "a simulated impression that a species is rubber and so that destruction of habitat and wild populations can proceed"[15].

Zoos spend millions on keeping animals confined, while natural habitats are destroyed and animals killed as at that place is bereft funding for protection. When London Zoo spent £5.3 1000000 on a new gorilla enclosure, the chief consultant to the UN Bang-up Ape Survival Project said he was uneasy at the mismatch between lavish spending at zoos and the scarcity of resource available for conserving threatened species in the wild.

"Five million pounds for three gorillas when national parks are seeing that number killed every day for desire of some Land Rovers and trained men and anti-poaching patrols. It must be very frustrating for the warden of a national park to see".

Measures to protect giant pandas' habitat too supports hundreds of species of mammals, at least 200 birds, dozens of reptiles and over half of the plants known to exist in Cathay [16].

In 2013, Liberty for Animals revealed that the UK's largest aquarium operator, Sea Life, could traceless than 3 pence per visitor to in situ conservation projects.

x. Zoos fail educational activity

A Freedom for Animals study of UK aquariums found that 41% of the animals on display had no signs identifying their species – the most basic of information.

A United states of america report found no compelling evidence for the claim that zoos and aquariums promote mental attitude change, instruction, or interest in conservation in visitors. The study authors urged zoos to stop citing a zoo-funded study which claimed an educational benefit from visits "as this conclusion is unwarranted and potentially misleading to consumers."[17]

In 2010, a Government-commissionedreportfound that "Concerns remain, notwithstanding, with regard to the lack of available evidence about the effectiveness" of conservation and education projects in zoos.

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[1]Grand Harris et al. The welfare, housing and husbandry of elephants in UK zoos. University of Bristol, 2008

[ii]Broad roaming animals fare worst in zoo enclosures. Guardian, 2.10.03

[3]Thousand Harris et al. The welfare, housing and husbandry of elephants in United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland zoos. University of Bristol, 2008

[4]G Mason & R Clubb. Invitee Editorial, International Zoo News, Vol 51, No 1 (2004))

[5]R Clubb et al. Compromised survivorship in zoo elephants. Science, Vol 322, 12.12.08

[6]G Mason & R Clubb. Guest Editorial. International Zoo News, Vol 51, No ane (2004))

[vii]Zoos kill good for you tigers for the skin trade. Sunday Times, 22.7.07l

[8]Code of Ethics & Animal Welfare. World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, June 2010

[9]Woburn admits it gave bull elephant electrical shocks. Sunday Times, 27.6.x

[10]http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/blackpool-zoo-s-baby-sealion-follows-in-her-female parent-due south-footsteps-one-5750458

[11]Taken by force. BBC Wildlife, February 2004

[12]R Clubb and Chiliad Mason. 'A Review of the Welfare of Zoo Elephants in Europe', RSPCA, 2002

[xiii]Nicholas Gould, Editorial, International Zoo News, Vol 49, No five (2002)).

[14]Quoted in 'Who Cares for Planet Globe?' B Jordan, 2001

[15]Snyder et al. Limitations of Convict Breeding in Endangered Species Recovery. Conservation Biology, Pages 338-348. Book ten, No. 2, April 1996

[sixteen]Panda mating frenzy hits zoo. BBC News, four May 2007 )

[17]L Morino et al. Do Zoos and Aquariums Promote Attitude Change in Visitors? A Disquisitional Evaluation of the American Zoo and Aquarium Written report. Social club and Animals 18 (2010) 126-138