A Caged Life

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December 4, 2009 • Maren Chewning  
Filed under Opinion

How would you feel if you were forced to live in a tightly confined area where you were constantly being watched during every action you made? How about being taken away from your home to be used as entertainment and education for the public? I don’t think keeping animals in restricted living areas, such as zoos and aquatic centers, for other’s amusement is right.

Every time someone mentions the word “zoo”, or the Monterey Bay Aquarium for example, people get excited to see all the different animals. Some go to see the exotic birds and the swinging monkeys at the zoo, and others go to see the fish and otters in aquatic centers. While looking at these animals, people point, laugh, and make comments about everything the animal is doing. Personally, I would not like any of that to happen to me, or for me to be stuck in a cage or tank so I can’t do anything about it. Animals were not put on this earth to be caged and restricted from living their lives. They are meant to roam free and live as nature intended. Other than the animals that are saved from poachers or harmful environments, animals should be able to live in their natural habitats and not somewhere that has artificial land and food that is just given to them. Animals are meant to hunt, fly, run, swim, and survive in nature. In a zoo or aquatic center, they are given everything they need without any effort. How does being bred in captivity help an animal? It doesn’t. For example, according to the Humane Society of the United States, whales and dolphins that live in captivity can’t maintain their natural pod and family groups, and they can’t live the lives for which they are built. A tank to a dolphin or whale is like a tiny swimming pool. They don’t have room to dive and swim long distances like they do in the sea. Putting an animal in captivity splits up families and can change the life of an animal, and can sometimes cause stress or even death.

Some people think aquatic centers and zoos are places that let you enjoy animals and learn about their differences, similarities, and cool facts. This may be so, but it is unfair to the animals to have people pressing their faces against the glass and constantly trying to get the animals to do something entertaining. I think taking animals from their natural habitats and putting them into restricted areas for public view isn’t right. Instead of capturing animals from their homes and showing them to hundreds of people a day, we can make more preserves and set up nationally protected areas for the animals. Nature isn’t meant to be controlled.

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