There is a version of this ignorant comment farming karma on every single thread of a captive animal on Reddit. Lets play another round of Jane Goodall on zoos! The fact of the matter is people who have dedicated their lives to studying these animals disagree with this sentiment. But don't take it from me, and don't take it from anyone else here.
Mongabay.com: During your press conference, a reporter asked for your view of modern zoos, to which you replied that youâd rather be a chimpanzee in one of them vs. how they sometimes have to live in the wild. Can you say more?
Goodall: Itâs just that I know so many places where chimpanzees must try to survive in forests that are being illegally logged, or logged by the big companies with permits. When chimpanzees try to move away, they are more than likely to encounter individuals of another community: as they are highly territorial, this means the interlopers will be attacked and such attacks often result in death. Moreover, hunters set wire snares for antelopes, pigs, etc, for food, and although the chimpanzees are strong enough to break the wire or pull a stake from the ground, the noose tightens around a hand or foot. Many individuals actually lose that hand or foot, or die of gangrene.
And then there is the bushmeat trade â the commercial hunting of animals for food. And the shooting of mothers to steal their infants for the illegal trade that has started up again as a result of a demand from China and other Asian countries and the UAE. Finally, as people move into the forests, they take disease with them, and chimpanzees, sharing more than 98% of our DNA, are susceptible to our contagious diseases.
Now think how the best zoos today not only have much larger enclosures, but well-qualified staff who not only understand but care about the chimpanzees, as individuals, and not just species. And great effort is put into enrichment activities, both mental and physical. Counteracting boredom is of utmost importance in ensuring a well-adjusted and âhappyâ group. This, of course, applies not only to chimpanzees, but all animals with even the slightest amount of intelligence. And we are learning more and more about animal intelligence all the time. The latest buzz is the octopus!
A final word: there is a mistaken belief that animals in their natural habitat are, by definition, better off. Not true, necessarily.
keep up the good fight soldier, any of the "captivity bad" knee jerk comments are the lowest form of contribution from lowest tier of IQ person.
They watch one documentary about a specific species in captivity and make it their entire personality to generalize the entire idea of zoos.
If anyone's not convinced by this, watch any of the footage of what it looks like to be anti-poaching. Poachers are advanced, and anti-poachers are heavily militarized in their own right. Zoos are much safer contingency. Anyone who want's to be against zoos should put their money where their mouth is and 1) donate 2) buy a fucking gun and go hunt poachers.
if you unrealistically humanize animals and then strip away their only source of guaranteed continuity as a species on the brink of extinction, where is the nuance exactly? You're literally using a knee jerk reaction to justify your opinion on something instead of defaulting to the opinion of people who have literally spent their entire lives ensuring the safety and wellbeing of a variety of species. It's fucking stupid, by definition.
Have you considered being kind instead of acting like people who arenât as informed as you are subhuman? I get it, itâs frustrating to hear the same ignorant sentiment over and over again. But what if instead of condescending to people, we looked inward and remembered that there are things weâre also uninformed about?
You probably donât want to be spoken about the way youâre speaking about other people. How nice would the world be if we could have civil, non-pedantic conversations and treat each other with respect and grace?
At this point, this tired, low effort, karma farming bullshit has been happening for the last decade, and quite literally none of the people who comment this shit have learned from the repeated attempts to "educate" them.
So, frankly, no. Idiots are less human. If I want to have an opinion on something, I back that opinion up with fact based research, material real world experiences, or informed 3rd parties. I don't just randomly exclaim "I have an opinion and it's a fact!" about random topics on the internet.
In fact, I think if we were LESS kind to neurotypical intellectually-challenged opinion-havers, we probably wouldn't be in a crumbling fail state ruled by a technocrat and a president who can't read and shits his pants.
Your comments are deranged. First of all, the internet is a huge place so many people may be learning about this stuff for the first time. Youâre so focused on finding a target to insult and degrade that youâd rather spew vitriol and eugenicist talking points than think critically.
Your ableism and weird superiority complex make a frightening combination. You whine about the fascist in chief but fail to make the connection between your bigotry, dehumanization, and his presidency. I hope youâre loud about your beliefs in public so people can know who you are and avoid you.
Edit: Also, Iâm not buying that youâve never been uninformed about anything. You canât accept that as truth because youâre delusional.
Given that is a scenario you entirely made up and you have no way of knowing where this is or what enrichment programs they run I'd say this doesn't make much sense to me.
Slagging off zoos when they contribute more to conservation than any other entity out there is more sad to me and frankly very misleading.
Slagging off zoos when they contribute more to conservation than any other entity out there is more sad to me and frankly very misleading.
Any source for this claim?
AZA accredited zoos and aquariums contribute over $160 millions annually, but that is only around 8% of the USA federal budget for wildlife conservation.
Making claims without a source is frankly very misleading.
Edit: The user blocked me, so I will respond here.
I think you were so man your reading comprehension took a dive there.
Really... I'm not the one who blocked their opponent out of frustration ;)
I never said they were the biggest spenders.
You said:
They contribute more to conservation that any other entity out there.
This is blatantly false, the federal government invest 10x as much.
The article you provided only state that they are a contributor, they don't make any comparison with any other entity so how exactly did you extrapolate that "they contribute more that any entity out there"?
You had to skip over that link to get to yours when you googled by the way.
Yes, because contrary to you I actually read my sources and that article was irrelevant.
Somewhat ironic the very next comment down is someone trying to mislead people though. Kind of makes my point for me. You had to skip over that link to get to yours when you googled this by the way.
As far as your angry edit goes. I've never not read something so hard.
They donât neuter the animals unless itâs for a medical reason (ie pregnancy being dangerous to their health due to prior issue), nor do they keep males away from females unless theyâre related and the species has a tendency to not be picky about doing the do with relatives
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u/SpareWire Mar 03 '25
There is a version of this ignorant comment farming karma on every single thread of a captive animal on Reddit. Lets play another round of Jane Goodall on zoos! The fact of the matter is people who have dedicated their lives to studying these animals disagree with this sentiment. But don't take it from me, and don't take it from anyone else here.
Here's Jane Goodall on zoos;