Zoos should be banned.

Okay, the con gave me proof as two animals which have benefited from zoos' conservation efforts. But that doesn't mean it couldn't been done in a different way. Zoos are not the only way to return species, I think that national parks or wildlife sanctuaries for example are much better for doing the job of conservation. And Sumatran tigers which you mentioned have been saved by different national parks NOT zoos, there's a difference. In zoos animals are kept in cages, but in wildlife sanctuaries and national parks, animals can live pretty much wild and free. They have some borders, but that's only to protect them. So your argument doesn't stand. ***** Now that text I basically rebutted already with saying most of Sumatran tigers have been saved by national parks. And you can't say that their happy in zoos, when I visited a zoo recently, one of the elephants was swaying her trunk back and forth. I heard a woman say: "if I could just do that all day, man that would be pretty sweet.". I also overheard a little girl ask her mother what the elephant was doing. Her mother answered that the elephant was "dancing". The sad truth though is that repetitive movements like trunk swaying are clear signs of stress. Since most of us only know these wild animals from seeing them in zoos, it isn't easy to recognize stress behaviors. Zoo keepers either aren't aware of these signs themselves, or they aren't eager to explain them to us. ***** They may have animal's in pairs, but half of the cases, they don't, an animal can be alone in the cage, you're talking again only about Sumatran Tigers, in one zoo, but I see the whole picture, and that picture is awful. And about the amount of contact, they have zookeepers playing with them etc. when their young and when their very popular, this amount of people around them, this is not even comparable with the safari tours, where the animals can live FREE and go away when they don't like the noise or something. ***** If you find that funny, you're a sad person. Dude you can't say that the directors and so, don't earn big money, because they do. Maybe the caretakers don't have big salaries. Do Pet shops sell CATS AND DOGS only? Do research facilities use mice and rabbits only? ***** You don't always learn everything from your teachers, I don't know where you live, but kids in Europe do their own conclusions too. And that what you said just makes it worse. So, a zoo is a freak show, and what do they learn from that, I brought the comparison about spending time per snake and per lion, (less than 8 seconds per snake, and one minute per lion). So it is just mere entertainment. I don't get how it is a valuable experience for them. ***** Of course everyone, considering me, can't afford taking a holiday to Africa, or North Pole. And don't assume I am rich because I am not. If we can't afford to visit them, we can learn about these amazing wild animals by going to a wildlife park, if there is no wildlife parks near you, or you can't afford that too then watching wildlife videos, television programs or by reading about them on the internet or in books and magazines is the solution for you. It is simply not right to enjoy seeing these animals while they are living a horribly sad life.