Morals of Animals in Captivity

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Imagine this: A five year old tiger, who had been in a zoo from its birth, had been released in wild world. At first jungle seems interesting for him. As he steps forward, there is no cage limiting his space. Feeling grass underneath of its paws makes him feel good. After a while, he realizes that in order to survive, he needs food. In his whole life, he had lived on meat brought by human. Like all those five years, he sits and waits for the food. Nobody is coming. He looks around desperately for the familiar zoo keeper. Time passes and hunger is overwhelming. What is he supposed to eat? There are all plants and gigantic trees around. Suddenly he hears a sound and remains silent. There is a deer wandering among trees. He looks at this cute creature wondering if he needs to take an action. He feels upset not knowing how to hunt the deer. There is no other choice for him. While he is preparing himself to chase his prey, deer sees him and escapes living the disappointed tiger among the bushes. What a miserable life! Keeping animals in zoos has been brought up in focus recently. There are many different debates about banning animals in captivity. Like many other debates there are supporters and opponents that might argue different aspects of whether we should keep animals in zoos or not. During research, I found interesting information about animal’s behavior in captivity. According to Mason, captive animals, especially those who are not domesticated propose repetitive actions called stereotypical behaviors. These types of behaviors that have no obvious goal such as swaying, repetitive pacing, head bobbing or bar-biting are mainly due to the frustration and stresses that animals are undergoing. Separation from natural habitat, enforced idleness, being controlled directly by humans, loss of life in normal social groups, drugs and medical fertility controls, and caging

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