Well, sad news (times two) from the Georgia Aquarium this past week. First, Gasper, the beloved Beluga whale rescued from a Mexican amusement park, succumbed to osteomyelitis, a bone disease. Then Ralph, one of the whale sharks, died of unknown causes. These two incidents have led people to question the humanity of keeping animals in captivity.
It's a tough question, because both of these animals made it to the aquarium as part of a rescue: Gaspar, from his cramped and noisy tank beneath a roller coaster, and Ralph, from a whaling boat where he would've ended up on someone's dinner table. The issue is further complicated when you consider the success of rare animal breeding programs like ZooAtlanta's pandas.
What do you think?
23 comments:
The death of those animals were completely non-related to being kept in Captivity. It has been shown that most animals live longer when kept in captivity, and tend to lead happy, cushy lives if put into proper zoos. Besides, with polluted, poacher-filled, predator filled, prey lacking wilds as an alternate, where is the debate?
I think that animals in captivity has its pros and cons. It is true that many animals live longer in captivity, almost doubling their life span, and they get well fed and kept in good health. Sometimes though, many animals do better in the wild cuz they have a lot more space to roam free and just live their lives-short or long. Its like cats and dogs. if you let your cat roam the streets freely, there is more potential for them to get hit by a car, killed by a fox, catch diseases, posioned, or abused, but when kept in doors they reduce 95% of the chance of dissapearing or being killed. Many times when in a situation like the whale shark was in, animals get very stressed and just cant hold onto life. Anyway, thats it!
You don't get stressed by being held in a zoo. Most of the stressing situations happen only in the wild: unavailibility of food, disease, poaching, etc. And with the cat thing, where is the pro in letting them outside? They can get hurt, decimate songbird populations, and mate with other cats, raising the already ridiculously high birth rate of stray cats.
Many animals get stressed in both situations, but more in captivity. i know this because i did a long hard study on the effect captivity has on wild animals and have read many books on animals and animal behavior. so ha! and i dont know what else u are talking about?
The masked Maurader is a Dur Durdur!
whos peter.
Your mom's an animal in captivity.
I wonder who put that last comment.
Durdur Dur?
Psh, Peter, you are the primitive monument to all of humanities mistakes and problems. You are the reason for War, suffering, and sickness.
You smell bad.
Gabriel, just dont blog anymore. ur comments make my brain hurt cuz they dont make ANY sense. ur talking 2 someone who doesnt exist.
(or at least i think u are.)
Forsooth, beloved Loren, your tribulations are a folly to the incessant bickerings of the civilized population. Your youthful innocence is a benediction to us all.
Dont speak like an old person.
I agree with Loren, there are certain things that are good and things that are bad about captivity. I think it's god when the animals are being rescued because the animals might be killed or die otherwise. I think it's bad if people are taking the animals even though they are happy and have a nice family. Personally, I think someone needs to invent some machine that translate what we say to whales and ask them if they want to, then we can translate their answer back into English.
I think thats an awesome idea zach!-ur smart, invent it!!!!!
i totally diagree with with Gabriel on this one b cause even tough "studies" show that "most animals live longer when held in captivity" these animals have been in the wild all of their live and arent necessarily used to those conditions. Their diet their lifestyle etc. are changed just because of their environment which can be hazardous to them in the future.
sry ive been getting to the blogs late ms.q the debate and research paper for ms.bonstein has messed me up a lot.
I feel the same way brianna does about capitivty. i also think it would be a great debate topic. i am usually horrible at debating but when it is something i feel very strongly on or has my attention i can debate fairly well!
You guys seem to think that animals like raising families and living Little House on the Prairie lives. They don't.
Realize that even if something is used to something, it doesn't necessarily mean it won't stress you out. You have all been taking tests for a long time, and they don't magically not stress you out anymore, do they? Name one, ONE thing that is stressful about captivity. At normal zoos, there is always food available, a good space to live in, no predators, and plenty to do. They aren't thrown in cages with the Ebola virus, are they?
Gabriel!!!!!!OMG. do u not get it. there are many stressful things about capitivity such as the move into zoos on some animals and also that many animals are not use to people. there are many other reasons but those are the main ones.I should know this because every week i work around cats(at the cat shelter i volunteer at)that come in every day that are very stressed out because they are usually strays and were wild before. it would be like taking u out of this big world and then making u live in a small cubical for the rest of your life. wouldnt u be stressed? And also many animals like living in their little houses on the prarie. such as little mice and merecats.
HAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Little cubicles? More like houses. Animals are given enough space to roam as much as they want. They don't need to run 15 miles every day, and if they do, they are given exercise wheels. Stray Cats and Zoo animals are completely different. A stray cat could have been chased by dogs, nearly run over, and starved in the streets before being taken to a shelter; of course its going to be a bit edgy. And we don't get so close to animals in zoos that we stress them out; au contrair, we are far away enough so they have space. The transition from wild to zoo for an animal would be like the transition from war-torn city to quiet suburb: at worst, we would be a bit bored.
And mice and meerkats are eaten like popcorn by predators. They don't live happy cute lives. Lay off the Disney movies.
You just dont understand gabriel.How bout I make u run on a plastic exercise wheel?
animals in captivity is a very broad, talked upon subject and when when you look at the pros and cons its hard to decide. in my opinion animals shouldnt be in captivity unless they are hurting human nature
I think animals should not live in captivity. They need to be "in" the "out"side world :D to be more like natural and stuff. Even if their life span is longer, its not worth it if you just stay in one place and get stared at the whole time.
ps. Very sad about the dead animals
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