Do not forget about the psychological side of the zoo: a person sees an animal close, a person likes an animal. The person begins to think about how well to do with the animal that he likes (and not only at the local level, but also more globally). And if we know that somewhere there are some hippos that are on the verge of extinction, and what? This animal is not from our natural circle. This is not our problem?
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Each of us has the opportunity to show love for animals in its own way. For example, now in our country there is a big problem with birds that have already arrived to us from the south, and the weather met them with frosts.
And yes I agree that everyone can show their love in their own way, but if someone is uneducated or uninformed or given false information, that person might be showing their love in ways that are actually harming those that they love. Which is why education about the truth about zoos is so important 🙂
hi again @zvezda51, please see my other comment first. again, i appreciate and respect your thoughtful comments and i want to share my responses to you, out of respect because obviously you like animals and nature, so we are on the same side :-)
I understand the argument you are trying to make, but that is the argument used by zoos and other businesses that profit from keeping animals for entertainment: that introducing people to animals up-close will create an appreciation and love for the animal, educating them to help these animals in the future. Unfortunately this is bad logic, because there are many people who have seen hamsters, ferrets, iguanas or cats up-close and in-person, but they do not grow to like hamsters, ferrets, iguanas or cats, or become advocates for hamster rescue, ferret rescue etc. Seeing an animal up-close and in-person may introduce the person to that animal but it does NOT mean the person will care about the animal's welfare. Look at all the people who don't like cats and dogs, even tho they have met them in person.
I also understand your point that if people can't see animals from outside their local region, then they might ignore them. This is also a bad argument because today, unlike in the 1950s, there is the internet and streaming video and people in South America can see videos of polar bears in real time. People don't need to see a polar bear at the zoo, in person, to care about polar bears starving to death from global warming -- people can just look at all the polar bear stories/images/videos/content from social media and the internet. Again, the traditional zoo has no place in modern society.