In the modern zoos many of the animals seem to be doing well by any objective standard -- good health, glossy coats, bright eyes, active and curious. I'm not certain that wild animals recollect or long for the "great outdoors" - where of course many would die an early, prolonged, and miserable death due to disease or poaching. Particularly in third world countries where agriculture and development bring them into direct conflict with humans.
In fact, zoos (and the better circuses) have played an important role in preserving the gene pool for endangered wild animals.
If you were a hunter perhaps you would understand the true cruelty of zoos.
One visit to a long term prison for violent offenders, and you would be shivering in your boots just after walking through such a place. Its much worse for predatory animals than for predatory humans.
The world is just like that. Animals eat other animals, with a delight which most humans see as abject cruelty.
Put yourself in that world with a liberal vacant smile and your feather duster. If you are not just about the fastest 100 meter sprinter in the world, you would simply be dead meat.
A predators burp would be the only footnote to your life , in the natural order of things.
Such is the world of fang and claw, and as humans, we deserve no part in it without understanding that.
Zoos preserve nothing. They are black holes of suffering imposed on animals and the natural order. Show me one where there has not been tragedy and death. You can't.
I totally disagree. Wild animals should be in the wild. I can’t stomach zoos nor would I ever go to a circus. A dear friend trained for circus performances and worked with Barnum and Bailey. The animals are treated cruelly. He couldn’t take it.
IF animals must be in a zoo for some reason, to be humane it should be one of those kinds that is like a wild preserve, where they have a natural environment. To be on display all the time in a cement cell is inhumane. I’ve seen a lot of animals who’ve gone insane in zoos - pacing back and forth, back and forth, with horrible expressions in their eyes. Rubbing bald patches, wierd habits, they’re not happy. So what if their fur is shiney?
I’m not anthropomorphizing animals; but I know they have emotions and can feel pain.