Growing up, I used to love going to the zoo. Going to the zoo was like going on an affordable safari adventure that wasn’t too far from home. I loved going on the monorail, taking pictures of the baby gorillas and being around animals, learning more about their habitats and way of life. My family and I were members of the Bronx Zoo in New York City for years, and I truly thought that zoos were the safest place an animal could be.
A couple years ago, I decided to go back to the zoo with my family for the first time in a while, and I started to notice how depressed the animals looked. They weren’t running around or playing with each other like you see pictures or videos. All they did was lay around and occasionally eat in their small pens and cages. My dad always said that he would love to be an animal in the zoo; all he’d have to do was lay around and take pictures all day but in reality, a lot of these animals are being abused, aren’t meant for captivity, and need to run around. This is a short list of animals that shouldn’t be held in captivity. I encourage you to read through this article and consider checking out animal sanctuaries instead.
1. Sudan
Sudan, the last remaining male northern white rhino, recently died in captivity on March 19, 2018 at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. For years, Sudan was used for breeding and even though 45-years-old is an old age for a rhino. Unfortunately, this now means that White Rhinos will go extinct. His daughter Najin, 28, and granddaughter, Fatu, 17 are still alive, but it’s important to honor Sudan and other male white rhinos by talking about other animals that have died in captivity.
2. Tilikum
Tilikum passed away January 6, 2017 at SeaWorld despite countless animal activist insisting that he be set free in a sea sanctuary. Tilikum was the face of the 2013 CNN documentary “Blackfish,” which discussed the mistreatment of Orcas and trainers at SeaWorld. Tilikum spent 33 years of his life in captivity where he was isolated and used for breeding, just like Sudan. SeaWorld has ended their breeding program but continues to keep their remaining Orcas in captivity to put on shows.
3. Harambe
Harambe was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo in May 2016 when a 4-year-old boy fell into his pen. Attempting to protect the boy, zookeepers shot the gorilla because they believed tranquilizer darts would not have taken effect quickly enough. Some people have also argued the mother should’ve paid better attention to her child. There’s no knowing whether Harambe would’ve hurt the boy or not, but the incident poses the question of whether gorillas should be kept in captivity in the first place to avoid these kinds of accidents.
4. Tatiana
Tatiana was a 4-year-old Siberian tiger, a species which, like the western lowland gorilla, is endangered. When a group of young men threw rocks and teased her on Christmas Day 2007, Tatiana leaped out of her pen at the San Francisco Zoo and went after the young men and killed one of them. She was soon shot to death by police officers. Later on, investigators found that the wall of Tatiana’s pen was four feet lower than the height required by federal safety standards. The zoo soon enough built a 19-foot-tall wall made of tempered safety glass panels, but does building a wall really fix the problem?
5. The World’s Saddest Polar Bear
You may have already seen the viral video of 3-year-old old bear Pizza (yes that is in fact what they decided to name her) from the Grandview Aquarium in the Guangzhou, China. The aquarium is located in the center of a Chinese shopping mall, and she lives in an enclosure where she doesn’t have enough room to move around or be active.