I must agree with you ( if you are anti-zoo) that not all zoos are perfect.Of the 500 or so zoological collections in the world, a few are excellent , some are inferior and the rest are appalling.Given the premises that zoos can and should be of value scientifically, educationally and from a conservation point of view ( thus serving both us and other animal life), then I feel very strongly that one should strive to make them better.I have had, ironically enough , a great many rabid opponents of zoos tell me that they would like all zoos closed down, yet the same people accept with equanimity the proliferation of safari parks, where, by and large, animals are far worse off than in the average zoo.An animal can be just as unhappy, just as illtreated in a vast area as in a small one, but the rolling vistas, the ancient trees, obliterate criticism, for this is the only thing that these critics think the animals want.
I feel , therefore, that one should strive to make zoos and safari parks better, not simply clamour fortheir dissolution.If Florence Nightingale’s sole contribution, when she discovered the appalling conditions in the hospitals of the last century, had been to advocate that they should all be closed down, few people in later years would have praised her for acumen and far-sightedness
I feel , therefore, that one should strive to make zoos and safari parks better, not simply clamour fortheir dissolution.If Florence Nightingale’s sole contribution, when she discovered the appalling conditions in the hospitals of the last century, had been to advocate that they should all be closed down, few people in later years would have praised her for acumen and far-sightedness.