(MY) zoos keeping animals safe

[Guest guest]

Tuesday October 27, 2009 Zoos keeping the animals safe - The Star

 

I REFER to the article “Amber Stripes Down for Peta’s Anti-zoo

campaign<http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/25/nation/4974693 & se\

c=nation>”

(*Sunday Star*, Oct 25).

 

First of all, zoos are not all bad. In fact, zoos are some of the very few

places left where certain species of animals still exist because they are

being bred and protected from destruction.

 

Zoos keep the animals safe from poachers. Although I understand that People

for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) wants animals to have a natural

environment, it is not feasible for their preservation as animals left in

the wild have been killed and hunted down and their natural habitat

destroyed.

 

I do agree that the state of animals in zoos is generally not very good but

zoos have long played a role as an educator to people and children about

animals, as well as being a safe place for them to live.

 

Peta campaigner Ashley Fruno has gone on and on about how wild animals

belong to the wild and that “an animal which lives a long and healthy life

but dies in the wild is not worse off than animals which spend all their

lives pacing in enclosures”.

 

Well, nobody can guarantee that an animal would be able to live long enough

in the wild considering how fast their habitat is being destroyed and how

many poachers are out there to capture them.

 

If anyone wants to go against zoos, it should be against private zoos, not

public zoos like Zoo Negara. Public zoos have to conform to many rules and

regulations laid down by the authorities and Government.

 

Therefore, they cannot freely take in animals and keep them any way they

like.

 

However, private zoos owned by wealthy people have no regulations to follow

and these animal collectors contribute to the suffering, exploitation and

extinction of wild animals.

 

I fail to see how Peta’s campaign against zoos with Amber Chia and a weird

unrealistic picture (what kind of tiger holds up notices?) is supposed to

help animals of the wild.

 

Peta has always come forward to the public with a famous figure and a

publicity stunt to say “This is the problem” but I have yet to hear them say

“Here is our solution”

 

Boycotting zoos is not going to help the animals.

 

*SENSIBLE ANIMAL ENTHUSIAST, *

 

*Kuala Lumpur. *