ReNe: zoos in general

This is directly related to the previous post about zoos, but more along a serious vein of: what are zoos for?

(It's not intended to be a through, serious discourse. More as an foot-note and rumination based on the zoo trip post.)

I won't deny I do enjoy going to zoos. They are interesting, especially to a city-kid. But zoos also have their negative aspects. Caging animals for humans to gawk at -- that's an ugly side of zoos. Sure, there is an educational aspect, but people *do* go to the zoos to be entertained, hence the popularity of animal shows and the unequal treatment of 'star' animals. More than that, do humans have any right to confine animals like that? Don't people feel uncomfortable when they read the information signboards that say, "this animal has a natural forage range of x square kilometers", and then realize that said animal is currently kept in an enclosure a tiny fraction of that range?

So zoos started off as a way to showcase the exotica. However, these days, we *know* of zebras and giraffes and other animals that would have amazed the masses a century ago. We can read about them in books and watch them in their natural habitat in documentaries... certainly those are more humane options and probably a lot more educational as well.

What other purpose do zoos serve? To allow people to see animals 'up close and personal'? I don't agree with that, and personally think it probably does more harm than good. Petting zoos seem rather traumatic for the animals, I should think. Personally, I think zoos only have one 'good' function left, and that's as a genetic repository. Sure, saving the habitat is important, but sometimes, there may not be a habitat left for that species -- zoos can play the equivalent of a sperm bank and safehouse. And not just for endangered species -- storing the genetic material of any species could possibly come in useful in the future. Of course, in that case, then the concept of a zoo would have to be drastically re-evaluated.

To sum, I enjoy going to zoos but if zoos were to be banned because, to put it a little clumsily, they were deemed unjust to animals, I would support that.