Advise for someone struggling with the morality of zoos

Career Advice

The title sums it up really.

I always thought I wanted to be a zookeeper, however since starting my internship I've began to realize that may not be the case. I didn't think I would have problems with the morality of zoos, but it's something I haven't been able to get out of my head since I started my internship.

Everytime I look at the animal enclosures, I think about how much space they would have to ACTUALLY run around in if they weren't in a zoo, especially the large plains animals like elephants and giraffes. I know they can't reach their full speed due to limited space.

Does anyone have any advise here? Is this something one can overcome? I'm not sure what other career I would even pursue.

TIA.

in Zookeepingby Inevitable-Dream-128

45%

16d

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No-Farmer1601

16d

Typically, animals migrate long distances because they NEED to, change in resource availability or weather. No, I'm not advocating for putting a herd of elephants in a backyard. I'm saying, as has been stated before by others, that food is obviously plentiful year round in a zoo, and weather can be predicted or otherwise anticipated and shelter provided. In the same vein, there's something to be said for effective enrichment programs as well as use and complexity of space. Would you rather spend all day in a barren Superdome or your bedroom with a bed, a TV, books, video games, and a mini fridge?

Conservation: Mongolian wood horses, Pere David's deer, American bison, California condor, bongos, golden lion tamarins, Arabian oryx, and the list goes on. These are species that would almost certainly not be around without zoo -based breeding and reintroduction into the wild. Otherwise, zoos are excellent providers of expertise, hands, and monies for conservation initiatives. Lest I forget to mention the education of zoo visitors.

Ambassador animals are a grey area. There are right and wrong ways to handle and present as well as to incorporate choice into the animal's life, but how do you really know if the animal does choose to be handled, touched, and shown to potentially a hundred children in one room? Also, they tend to have more skimpy smaller housing than exhibit-based specimens of the same species. (I don't oppose ambassador animals, but worked with people who have). Lincoln Park and Detroit have phased them out, and that doesn't hold them back as some of the most respected zoos in the field.

Whether or not you decide the zoo world is right for you, and whether or not it's because of your morals and values, I hope you find yourself a job that fulfills you.