Many zoos are in place to help conserve dangerously endangered animals and education the public about them.  

this is not the news we need ;-;

Accredited zoos cant be for profit. Accredited zoos are great and do tons of good educational and conservation work (LA Zoo, San Diego Zoo, etc). Non-accredited zoos are bad and should be closed with their animals being released or, if that’s not possible, going to accredited zoos.

California condors, black rhinos, white rhinos, grey whales, cave and basin snails, several African cichlid species, several reptile and amphibian species, spotted owls, San Clemente Island foxes, swift foxes... I can go on and on. All of these animals have been saved from extinction by accredited zoos and aquariums.

So would the Red Wolf - and any number of endangered species that have seen their numbers increased through captive breeding programs and eventual repopulation.

You’re right, however that captive breeding program must pay its bills and this situation is proof that visitors = money.

I understand finding zoos problematic but it’s not true that they’ve had no impact on conservation.  There are species that wouldn’t exist if not for the work of zoo researchers.

There are certainly more pigs and cows and chickens, so they aren’t at risk of going extinct. And they’re being slaughtered already, so this would give a use to it, instead of landfill. 

My sister founded and is the director of a zoo in Central America. All of her animals are rescues, and indigenous to her country. They were either abandoned, or abused. She teaches that country about their resources, their environment and provides educational opportunities through her tropical education center. I urge…

Getting rid of zoos because they don’t conform to how you wish the world worked won’t help anything.

They didn’t jump straight to euthanasia. If you go back to the original article (which, I’m sorry if you don’t read German, is in German, but Google Translate is pretty good for German) this is an emergency plan for their very worst case scenario. They’re currently only kept going by donations, so making this…

It’s actually relatively common that our local zoo feeds prey animals to the predators. Grazers that are old, sick, genetically wonky, etc. are humanely euthanized, and then parted out for the big cats, wolves, bears, etc. It’s way cheaper than trying to find a place to bury a giraffe, and honestly more natural.

Honestl…

I can think of a bunch of administration people who could be used for zoo meat before they start feeding the animals to each other.

Yeah, I can’t help but wonder if this guy is at an accredited zoo or a “zoo” like Joe Exotic owned a “zoo”.

The issue is being able to pay for the food, water, electricity, vets, and other care for the animals without the venue from guests which is required to meet that budget.

Jumping straight to euthanasia seems like a wild leap to me. There have to be other options. Also, couldn’t plenty of employees be kept on, distanced from each other? 

I’m with you, though I see the benefit and use of well run, thoughtfully programed zoos. Regardless of the future of zoos, this is another deeply unsettling effect of this horrendous year no matter how it resolves.

I understand what you mean about zoos being problematic, especially since they were started in an era of white supremacy/imperialism and haven’t always been great about giving animals good environments. But they do do a really important job in keeping species alive that we humans may otherwise have killed off into…

Or he should even learn to read. Based on the preamble, the adult was doing the selling, the kid was buying. The cop let the actual perpetrator (the adult selling the cigarettes) walk so he could beat on a kid for the heinous crime of buying cigarettes underage.

Either kill yourself of learn to use the sarcasm tag.