Zoos do more harm than good.

--I will be affirming this resolution. =======Burden of Proof=======Since I and arguing for the affirmation of the resolution, I will have the BOP. Therefore, the status quo of zoos being "good" is to be assumed until I show otherwise. =======Definitions=======1. Harm: Physical or mental damage [1].2. Zoo: A zoo (short for zoological park or zoological garden, and also called a menagerie) is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred. [2]3. Good: morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious. [5]________________________________________________________________________________________________=======Arguments======= -----Plagiarism-----First and foremost, Con's entire R1 argument is plagiarized [3] -- Not that it needs to be pointed out as it's plainly obvious since Con didn't even bother to leave out the part about the sites advertising at the end of the article he's ripping off. -----Enclosure Space/Premature Death-----Often Zoos have insufficient enclosure space for the animals in question. This is pretty much true for all the larger animals, but it is especially true for elephants. In the wild, elephants may walk up to 30km a day -- something they can't do in a zoo enclosure. This results in said elephants dieing at an average age of 16-18 years, rather than the 50-70 they usually live in the wild [4]. The natural life-span of wild elephants is comparable to the average life-span of humans. Consider how poor one's living conditions must be for a group of humans to die off in their teens on average. To help you imagine such a poor standard of living, consider that the most impoverished nations on Earth still have a population that's expected to live 2-3 times as long as these elephants [6]. However bad the standard of living must be to kill off humans after only 16-18 years, that level of poor living standard is the equivalent of how these elephants are living inside these zoos right now. In zoos, 40% of baby lions die before one month of age. Compare that to wild where only 30% of lion cubs die before the age of six months [11]. -----Abnormal Repetitive Behavior-----Abnormal Repetitive Behavior (ARB) is a blanket term used to describe a long list of abnormal behaviours in animals including such things as walking back and forth, bar-biting, rocking and even self-biting. More symptoms listed here [7]. ARB is often the result of stress, frustration, or impaired brain function. the University of Kent in the U. K. set forth to find out how common ARB was in animals kept in zoos. The animal they chose to test was chimpanzees. Their finding were as follows:"Our overall finding was that abnormal behaviour was present in all sampled individuals across six independent groups of zoo-living chimpanzees, despite the differences between these groups in size, composition, housing, etc. We found substantial variation between individuals in the frequency and duration of abnormal behaviour, but all individuals engaged in at least some abnormal behaviour and variation across individuals could not be explained by sex, age, rearing history or background (defined as prior housing conditions). " [8]This study shows that even well-funded zoos still are not adequate enough to properly care for chimpanzees, which are relatively small animals compared to the likes of elephants, hippopotamus's and any of the large cats. -----The Myth of Conservation-----Zoos are said to be important due to the fact that they are helping to conserve the species of their animals. First of all, most zoos do not register their animals in an international species database, nor are most of the animals kept in zoos endangered in the first place. [4]Second, zoos have a horrendous track record of saving endangered species. Out of the thousands of animals that are considered endangered and out of the 200 species that are going extinct daily [9] (keep in mind, this number includes plants as well), zoos have only succeeded in bringing back 16 species to the wild [4]. This is because re-introducing captive animals into the wild almost never works due to the insufficient life-experience animals receive in captivity. Mating in zoos is also a waste of time. Consider that elephant breeding in zoos costs over 50 times more than it costs to protect the equivalent amount of elephants in the wild [4]. Therefore, conservation programs for animals in the wild are far superior methods of conserving animals than zoos are, and for every 1 elephant saved in a zoo, 50 wild elephants could have been saved. -----Surplus Animals are Slaughtered-----In an attempt to increase there customer base, zoos spend a great deal on breeding baby animals, since baby animals have such a large appeal. The problem is that these zoos are already too small for the adult animals thy have now, let alone all the new ones growing up. This results in annual auctions for these animals. Often times, these animals are either sold to hunters for sport, or to a slaughter-house [10]. In some cases, the zoos themselves kill their "surplus" animals;"In 2010, zoo trade bodies rallied to the defence of a German zoo which was prosecuted for breaching animal welfare laws after it killed three tiger cubs because they were not pure-blooded (hybrid). " [11]There's much, much more where this came from, but considering that Con's argument was plagiarized, this is probably already over-kill. =======Conclusion=======Con plagiarized his entire argument. To even call it an argument is generous because he plagiarized the introduction on a sites homepage -- there was nothing statistically significant stated at all. Furthermore, I've established that zoos are woefully insufficient in breeding, raising, conserving, and in keeping the minimum standard of living needed to keep these animals alive even a fraction of how long they are supposed to live. Given this, paired with the fact that Con has effectively posted nothing yet and it's clear that the resolution has been affirmed. 1. . http://www.merriam-webster.com...2. . http://en.wikipedia.org...3. . http://www.goodzoos.com... 4. . http://www.veganpeace.com... 5. . http://dictionary.reference.com... 6. . http://en.wikipedia.org... 7. . http://www.aps.uoguelph.ca... 8. . http://www.plosone.org... 9. . http://www.huffingtonpost.com... 10. . http://www.peta.org... 11. . http://www.captiveanimals.org...