Zoo Captivity – Skrtich Editorial

It is a pretty well-known fact that wild animals, for the most part, are healthier than animals held in captivity. Now, how come if a zoo states that they are not hurting the animal it’s suddenly okay? But how do we even know if they are telling the truth they could be purposely hiding the truth from everyone so no one will ever find out their secrets. The zoos did this mostly with white tigers, and elephants. These normal “zoo animals” have a secret that whoever is keeping them captive does not want anyone to find out.   

One of the semi-common animals in a zoo is a white tiger, right? You look at them and admire how pretty they are, maybe take a picture or 2 then move on. Well, “1 in 30” of the white tigers in zoos “have issues”. That means that you are only looking at the best white tiger out of all their brother and sisters,(Kinda messed up don’t you think?), the zoo didn’t deem their siblings good enough to go into their zoo for visitors to see. Their siblings could have been “discarded or euthanized” or some just “disappear”. That’s because “Only 1 in 30 bred to be white come out that way”. All of the white tigers that exist are descendants of 1 naturally born white tiger cub. But, when it was just a baby it was taken by a hunter. That has to mean that the zoos are inbreeding these white tigers. When they do that there are so many things that could go wrong and do go wrong while inbreeding these tigers. In fact, “all” white tigers that are born in zoos have “crossed eyes”. But that is not there the only problem, they all could have “kidney issues”, “spine issues” and “clef pallet issues”. There is a lot of reasons not to do what zoos do but, at some point, you just have to think of white tiger’s lives in the eyes of them and not just in the selfish eyes of zoos. 

Another common animal that is probably at every zoo is an elephant. Elephants are very common at zoos and in fact one that you might look forward to on your way there. But have you ever looked at zoos through the eyes of their captive animals? Elephants are very similar to humans, elephants too can suffer from mental illness. Some zoos in Thailand have “chain spikes around [the elephant’s arm] used to keep the elephant in the exhibit.” Don’t you think if you had a spiky metal chain wrapped around your leg that you might be a LITTLE unhappy? “Elephants in captivity die at about age 40, while those in the wild live into their 70s.” There are so many reasons why elephants could die sooner than they are supposed to but one could be that they are just unhappy with the way they are treated and are just done with living.  If a person died at 40 and was supposed to live till 70, most people would say that that person would have died so young. Now answer me this, why is it so different when we talk about animals? 

All I’m saying is that next time you see a captive animal in a zoo think about how they are feeling instead of how the zoo wants you to think they’re feeling. And maybe instead of going back to a zoo visit an actual sanctuary and then notice the difference on the animal’s faces and the difference of the other people’s faces there too and trust me you won’t regret it!

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2 thoughts on “Zoo Captivity – Skrtich Editorial

  1. My editorial was about how animals shouldnt be in circuses, I agree with everything you said in your editorial, it is not fair to these animals for them to live like this.

  2. Maya, this was amazing! I don’t even know where to start. I really liked how you asked a question in the beginning, making the reader think about the topic and show a different perspective. Your whole beginning paragraph made me want to read more After reading this piece, I now am thinking more deeply into zoo captivity and isolation of animals. I also really liked the ending. It not only gave the reader encouragement to go to a sanctuary rather than the zoo, but it also gave the reader something to think about and have something to take away from this. Well done!!

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