Reply to I was a zookeeper at National Zoo. AMA.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why does the preservation of species, genetic research or public advocacy outweigh the natural right to freedom that all sentient beings possess?[/quote]

Conservation is the biggest scam zoos ever pulled. They don't conserve species. Most species in zoos aren't even endangered. No zoo animals will ever be released into the wild. They would very quickly die - captive animals don't have the skills needed to survive in the wild. It's exactly as if you or I were dropped into the middle of the woods and told to survive and procreate. We'd die.

AZA zoos have a program called the "Species Survival Plan" which sounds like conservation work, but it's actually just a program to guarantee the survival *of the captive population*. So every individual of a species in AZA zoos is tracked and paired with mates that will offer the most genetic diversity to prevent inbreeding. Occasionally, if genetic diversity is needed in the captive population, wild individuals will be captured. The whole program is just to ensure that zoos continue to have animals to display.

A handful of zoos like National Zoo and San Diego have offsite facilities where they conduct research that does help wild populations. But it's usually not sexy - it's more along the lines of studying an illness that is killing entire frog populations, rather than trying to save the popular animals like pandas and elephants.

In my own opinion, the main purpose of zoos is to 1. Educate the public so that they care about protecting wildlife and ecosystems 2. Raise money with the fun animals that can then go towards helping the animals nobody really cares about (which are the ones that need it the most).

What actually helps conservation is protecting huge amounts of land and having breeding facilities that are not open to the public, where animals can be bred and trained for release.

But I do believe that the education and connection piece is important. My love of animals came from a trip to Sea World, where I fell in love with orcas. I spent a decade working towards becoming an orca trainer, before I got older and realized orcas don't belong in captivity (plus, it's SO DANGEROUS to work with them). Would I have developed a love for animals and conservation without that first encounter with an orca? I don't know.

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