We must abolish all zoos and aquariums. Most of you guys have gone to zoos when you were younger. You probably learned that it’s better for animals to live in zoos than their natural habitat because they are treated better. Several years ago, a healthy young giraffe called Marius was killed, for an incapability of breeding because his genes were too common. He was dissected in front of an audience, and feed to carnivores. The month after Marius was killed in Copenhagen Zoo, the same zoo killed four lions, all from the same family just because a new male lion was coming to the zoos. These are just few of the times animals have been mistreated in zoos.

In most aquariums, they would have killer whales, dolphins, sharks, and many other large marine animals in tanks that seem huge to us. Compared to the animals that swim up 100 miles per day, the “huge” tanks are no more than kiddie pools. In SeaWorld, orcas are forced to breed regularly at a young age, whereas in the wild, orcas choose their own mates. An orca named Katina was forced to breed at only 9 years old. Orcas are naturally bred in the wild at 14. Now she is bred with every male orca at SeaWorld, and is even inbred with her own sons. Inbreeding causes birth defects and even death.

Zoo supporters claim that the scientists are saving rare species by breeding. But zoos are not very good at this. World famous panda breeding programs have been unsuccessful and very expensive. Many zoo workers don’t know enough about the animals that live in captivity. A bear died in a zoo because a zoo keeper locked her up to hibernate without food or water. They didn’t know that her species didn’t hibernate.

Zoos harm animals. An injured wallaby was drowned by a zoo keeper because she didn’t want to take the animal to a vet. How would you feel if your dog was treated like this? Eleven rare Siberian tigers died because the people couldn’t afford the food and care for the animals.

Many animals in zoos have zoochosis, which is a series of behaviours of animals in captivity.This happens because the animal is separated from their natural habitat, and direct control from humans. Some of the results of this are self harm, desperate attempts to escape, and other signs of depression. All animals in captivity are emotionally destroyed and traumatized. Just imagine being taken from your family and having your parents killed, then living in a cage the size of a closet for all your life, with animals staring at you, and you are being forced to do meaningless acrobatic acts. I’m quite sure that you would go insane and try to escape. Many animals attempted to escape from zoos, and were killed during the process.

Zoo life does not prepare the animals for the wild at all. Animals cannot get the exercise they need; they lose their ability to hunt. When they are released into the wild, they simply starve, or they can be hunted down by other predators. Two lynxes that were released into the wild where there were a lot of wild hares, which is their natural prey died of hunger anyway.

Most zoos have educational programs where they talk about wild animals and their habitats. But could they EVER see that at a zoo? No! How can they ever learn about free animals in the wild when they can only see depressed animals in cages?   It’s simple; zoos can just release the animals into the wild and put the endangered animals on reserves. With the animals in the wild, kids can actually learn about the animals in their natural habitats. It’s all up to us humans to protect the animals. Abolish all zoos.