Look folks here is what it comes down to. There is aways going to be good zoos, accredited zoos, and bad, shitty zoos. Good zoos, accredited by AZA, EZA and WAZA the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums, European Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and World Assocation of Zoos and Aquariums are the ones doing amazing work.
They are out there educating the public, working with communities, require the highest possible quality of care and safety standards possible. And it shows!
In addition to some of the outside conservation projects I named in my previous post here are a few more reasons good zoos are important and the stuff they do!
Accredited Zoos and Aquariums are the LARGEST contributor of donations to conservation projects. Not PETA, not the Humane Society, not Paws, not any damn celebrity. Zoos and aquariums.
Animal species that live in good zoos have life expectancys that are double those that live in the wild!
Accredited zoos do not take animals from the wild UNLESS it is an individual that can no longer surrive in the wild. By that I mean they CAN NOT care for themselves, the animals are dependent on humans(mostly because some human found it, thought it would be a pet, and tried to raise it. When that didn’t work it ends up in captivity), would be consider “nusiance” animals (potentially dangerous to people because they lost their fear of humans), injuryed or deformed, or were confiscated by private collections.
Accredited facilities participate in the Species Survival Plan the SSP. This is a captive breeding program that manages genetically diverse populations of endangered species. They do this so that for one they don’t have to take animals from the wild but second and more importantly so that years and years and years down the line, if there is any sort of feasible wild left a test population of a species can be reintroduced into the wild.
The black footed ferret, california condor, the gray wolf, the addax, and most recently the panda bear are just SOME animals that were part of the SSP and have either had success releasing test populations back into the wild or have been able to take off the endangered species list.
The problem today is that the voice and information that the average person receives is from television and news. That is the voice of PETA and the Humane Society. They are the voice with the money so they are loudest. Theyre the correspondance on the news when an incident happens, they are the whisper of a lobbyist in a politicians ear. They are loudest because they have the time and the money to be. However their voice is also filled with misinformation, manipulation, and more often then not, straight lies.
The voice we need to hear; scientist, biologist, curators, zoo keepers, trainers you know where our money for our voice is? Its in the food we buy for our animals, the constant matience in our animals homes, in the vet bills, in our research, in our projects, in our communites. Our money goes to our cause and when it comes to lobbying, to tv, to chatting up the celebs its gone and so is our voice.
We wake up everyday, to be bruised, bitten, sweaty, and horrifically underpaid. To be yelled at by people who don’t understand because we LOVE what we do, because we BELIEVE in what we do. Because at the end of the day our animals are making a difference. Our animals are the face to the name. The experience no book or movie could ever provide. The inspiration of future generations.
So help me, help zoos and aquariums, be our voice! Support your accredited zoos and aquariums! And for god sake shut down the misinformation! Because if we don’t these beautiful animals that we love will be lost.
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