OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Further research and presentation

Once I had chosen the issue of the mistreatment of animals within zoos I started looking for research to help inform my brief. This issue is something I have encountered myself within a zoo in Blackpool where I saw penguins living in small concrete floored enclosures with little water. My encounter with this was unexpected as I didn't expect it to happen within the UK. This was something I wanted to explore further during this part of my research.

I looked into how other large companies had commented on the issue. Statements I looked at came from Peta, the BBC and articles I found online. 

Despite their professed concern for animals, zoos can more accurately be described as “collections” of interesting animals than as actual havens or homes. Even under the best of circumstances at the best of zoos, captivity cannot begin to replicate wild animals’ habitats. Animals are often prevented from doing most of the things that are natural and important to them, like running, roaming, flying, climbing, foraging, choosing a partner, and being with others of their own kind. Zoos teach people that it is acceptable to interfere with animals and keep them locked up in captivity, where they are bored, cramped, lonely, deprived of all control over their lives, and far from their natural homes.

http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/animals-used-entertainment-factsheets/zoos-pitiful-prisons/

Is it morally wrong to keep animals in zoos?

The animal rights answer

It is wrong if animals have rights because:

• it treats the animal as a means to achieve some human end
• it fails to treat animals with the respect they deserve
• it violates the animal's right to live in freedom

The animal welfare answer

From the welfare point of view it is wrong to keep an animal in a zoo if the animal has a less pleasant life than it would have outside the zoo.

Reasons why people think keeping animals in zoos is bad for their welfare:

• the animal is deprived of its natural habitat
• the animal may not have enough room
• the animal is deprived of its natural social structure and companionship
• the animal is forced into close proximity with other species and human beings which may be unnatural for it
• the animal may become bored, depressed and institutionalised
• animals bred in zoos may become imprinted on human beings rather than members of their own species - this prevents them fully experiencing their true identity
• although animals may live longer lives in zoos than in the wild, they may experience a lower quality of life

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/using/entertainment_1.shtml

Opponents of zoos such as Marc Bekoff, a behavioural ecologist and professor emeritus at the University of Colorado, argue that an animal’s life in captivity is a shadow of their experience in the wild. Proponents of zoos such as the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums counter that the conservation benefits zoos provide outweigh the isolated (albeit tragic) costs paid by the animals involved.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/margi-prideaux/zoos-are-problem-not-solution-to-animal-conservation

I also found other facts such as, 

Scarborough Penguins are on anti depressants

West Midland Safari Park sold animals using a 'notorious circus campaign' to a Japanese circus where they remain to this day

Animals kept in zoos are almost never released into the wild

A gorilla at Twycross zoo gave birth and didn't trust humans enough to touch her baby

Surplus animals are often killed if they out live their usefulness