Animal Petition!

[Rishi]

Shared & signed... For it means well. But this petition has frankly has the whole concept upside down.

(04-20-2020, 09:07 PM)kate5002 Wrote: While we may justify zoos as a way for kids or adults to learn about our natural environment...

...We strongly believe that Zoos - where people find pleasure by mostly walking around, eating food, treating these suffering animals as an art gallery - are not required. In today’s high tech world experiencing wildlife at close quarters can be easily met through programs such as virtual zoos and safaris. 

Firstly, that's not what zoos are for at all. Much of big zoos are even off limit to visitors. Visitors are just a source of additional income. Rescue & breeding centres often don't allow visitors so that the animals (meant to be released in wild) don't get used to humans.
They have a many other purpose than just indulging people... They serve as gene banks... They serve as captive breeders... They serve as rescue centres. Visit the link & read.

Yes zoos with those sort of enclosures need to be terminated... or upgraded to this standard, where it ensures the animal's comfort over visitor's.

But thats just bad infrastructure. Bad infrastructure is everywhere in a country like India. We even have schools/hospitals equivalent of that too, but you can't post a photo of one such school to demand all schools to be shut down & children be homeschooled instead.

Quote:
No new zoos to be opened in the future.
No new animals to be inducted in any existing zoo.
Close down zoos that have very low footfall.
Design a Phase-out plan for existing zoos over the next few years.

Those demands themselves are like saying, shutdown all fossil-fuel plants. Not feasible in practical scenario... Plus a certain number of problem/conflict animals come up every year that need to be housed in captivity or shot. They need to be housed somewhere.

Not to mention, there are thousands of animals of hundreds of species that can't be rewilded (as they are adults & don't have the knowhow to survive in the wild).


If they were to move zoo animals to semi-wild safari parks (basically fenced forest patches) with enclosures of atleast few hectares, then that would have made sense.
So, maybe reconsider the target to make it more practically doable. Reply