Their website only states that natural habitats are created for the animals, but I did not see any of that in any photos. The one photo I can readily find shows a guy standing with a giraffe in a steel cage environment. If I were to make a decision to attend this ‘zoo’ based on their website, I would say nein!
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Are you kidding me? Do you think these chimpanzees would rather be lving in the wild or in their contained environment. This is aburd thinking.
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IMO the most absurd argument is “but the science and knowledge” which is another way of saying “Sure, we are abusing animals but we learn a lot from it” which I think was pretty close to the argument Josef Mengele used.
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I don’t find it absurd at all. If we could truly ask the chimpanzees: “What do you prefer? Safety, healthcare and regular meals in captivity or predators, hunger and freedom in the wild?” I’m fairly confident there would be some takers.
Like I said early on, I’m not a huge fan of caging animals either. But a chimpanzee dying of old age at nearly 60 with full care isn’t exactly a shocking image of human cruelty. And, again, I’m not at all certain that being dead for the last 30 years would have been a preferable outcome from the chimp’s point of view.
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I suppose the difference would be in the context of asking. When having lived all their lives in captivity, they would never have known the wild, so sure, they may choose security and medical care. However, if they were captured in the wild, frightened, confused and torn away from their family group, and most likely at a very young age, I would bet dollars to donuts they would choose to be wild. I’d even go further and bet dollars to donuts, even the age old ones, if given an inkling of freedom in the wild, would choose to live in the wild. It’s their natural habitat.
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Why so clear on the former but not the latter?
The first proposition strictly requires merely the nod of two out of the entire set of existing chimpanzees to be considered valid. The second is me doing armchair though-reading on a specific individual.
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It’s not their natural environment. But they do make an effort to create artificial habitats acceptable for the animals wellbeing.
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Was waiting to be off work to watch this. The video is very sad but i did definitely feel comfort and some small measure of happiness knowing that the old keeper was able to visit Mama and give her a moment of joy before the end. That’s all one can hope for at the end, to know we’re not alone and that someone out there cared and loved us.
I know that captivity can be pretty taxing on the mental health of wild animals, but i hope Mama’s life was at least a meaningful one.
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Oh look! Biological determinism!
I think Goodall recognizes that zoos can play a role. But like I said, it isn’t black and white. The ethics of zoos are complicated, to me at least.
I think one advantage of zoos is that they are an accessible way of connecting people with conservation issues, not everyone will manage a field trip to see the chimps, or be able to attend a lecture by a famous conservationist, but a good chunk of America and Europe live within an hour’s travel of a zoo. If I have one beef with the conservation work that zoos do, it’s that they tend to focus on far flung places rather than their own backyards.
That gives Mengele too much credit, as his programs were founded on a concept of racial superiority and ethnic cleansing that invalidate any scientific conclusions that may have been drawn. I’ve never heard someone say “Mengele was right about…” If we’re gonna call Zookeepers and zoo researchers Nazis, then why not pet owners, wildlife managers, and all people who eat meat.
Also, it’s a pretty big stretch to call the research that happens in zoos abuse, but if there were actual abuse happening then of course that would be unacceptable.
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Zoos are a critical part of breeding programs to help with certain endangered species, and as you said they help raise awareness and even money that goes toward said breeding programs. There are downsides to captivity of course but yeah it’s not a black and white scenario, but i do hear stories of certain animals being given antidepressants and the like and it breaks my heart.
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I did… 
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I consider life imprisonment abuse but maybe that’s just me.
Except his data on end stage hypothermia and low-pressure environments still provide some of the most comprehensive data on those subjects and is still being used today. But the question of the validity of his research isn’t the point at all. The point is that excusing lifelong abuse in the name of science is morally indefensible. That you believe the data is better is beside the point.
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