Beautiful Photos Of The Animals In The ZOO

The animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the anti-zoo campaign group Captive Animals Protection Society argue against the position of the zoos that their main purpose is to undertake research and aid in conservation, alleging that most zoo research is geared toward finding new ways to breed and maintain animals in captivity. Andrew Linzey, director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, argues that zoos make a "minuscule contribution to conservation."
• Surplus animals
For every animal caught in the wild, several more are killed in the process. Therefore, the breeding of animals within zoos is encouraged. Eric Baratay and Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier of the Université Jean-Moulin, Lyon, say that the overall "stock turnover" of animals is one-fifth to one-fourth over the course of a year—with three-quarters of apes dying in captivity within the first twenty months. They say that the high mortality rate is the reason for the "massive scale of importations."
The downside to breeding the animals in captivity is that thousands of them are placed on "surplus lists" each year, and sold to circuses, animal merchants, auctions, pet owners, and game farms. The San Jose Mercury News conducted a two-year study that suggested of the 19,361 mammals that left accredited zoos in the U.S. between 1992 and 1998, 7,420 (38 percent) went to dealers, auctions, hunting ranches, unaccredited zoos and individuals, and game farms.