Breeding is more closely regulated to avoid inbreeding or surplus animals. Imports of endangered animals are restricted by U.S. and international law dating to the 1970s. Accredited zoos must take steps to prevent their exotic animals from ending up at game farms. Increasingly, major zoos are participating in conservation and research overseas, trying to save animals in their native habitats. These higher ethical standards often are ignored at roadside zoos, backyard sanctuaries and other under-regulated sites.
Critics point out that even animals from accredited zoos sometimes go to hunting preserves.
And they want major zoos to focus less on entertainment, even while conceding that they are more conservation-oriented than ever. Nowhere is the impact of changes over recent decades more obvious than in the complex arrangements required for the National Zoo to borrow a pair of giant pandas from China for 10 years. International law requires the import not be for moneymaking purposes and that it not harm the species in the wild, where only about 1,000 remain. A few decades ago, zoos bred animals with entertainment in mind. White tigers, for example, are gorgeous specimens, but they are a mixed breed.