A big discussion among many animal rights’ activists and the general public is whether or not animals should be held in captivity. A major argument those in favor of captivity claim is the fact that zoos educate the public about animals and conservation by providing an entertaining way to learn. Personally, I know that whenever I go to a zoo I always have an interest in animals that day and the immediate day after, but after a while my opinion on animals goes back to how it was before visiting the zoo. For this reason, I decided to question whether or not people actually become educated about animals from visiting zoos. Is it worth it to leave animals in captivity if people don’t actually gain any knowledge about animals and are just simply getting an immediate source of entertainment?

According to research published in the academic journal, Conservation Biology, it appears untrue that children are educated from visiting zoos. The research conducted surveyed 2,800 children after guided and unguided visits to the London zoo. This survey revealed that 62% of children showed no change in knowledge regarding new facts about animals or anything pertaining to environmental conservation. In fact, this study suggested children’s knowledge over conservation is worsened, or a “negative learning outcome”forms, as the children feel they cannot do anything effective enough to solve the problem (One Green Planet 2014). I personally find it difficult to believe that a reverse effect regarding education when visiting zoos would form, considering although most children will not learn anything, they will still have at least non- changed feelings towards conservation and animals. I think that a factor such as chance would be a valid possibility towards the theory of a negative learning outcome. Especially since there’s no real evidence supporting that theory.
Liz Tyson, the director of the Captive Animals’ Protection Society, supports the journal Conservation Biology, stating “Zoos present an entirely false view of both the animals themselves, and of the real and very urgent issues facing many species…Zoos do not educate nor do they empower or inspire children”(Captive Animals’ Protection Society 2015). I agree with Tyson with the idea that zoos portray a false depiction of what they are actually like. The only true way to actually witness animals in their natural state is by watching them out in the wild.
Marc Bekoff, a professor of emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado wrote an article on the Huffington Post comparing zoos to musicals where zoos have strict criteria for which types of animals should be in the zoo based on which animals follow the specific behavior patterns that will lead to the easiest upkeep and most entertaining results for visitors while providing little risk in the animal acting out. Beckoff coined the term “zoothanasia” which follows this idea of zoo breeding, which is the act of unnecessarily killing healthy animals who don’t fit into the zoo’s breeding program. Since zoos do not accurately represent what life is like for those animals, Beckoff believes that visitors aren’t actually gaining any knowledge from zoos (Live Science 2014).
The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums came out with an essay titled “Zoos, Aquariums do teach us about biodiversity” which stated that more than 6000 visitors to over 30 zoos and aquariums took part in a study where they filled out surveys pre and post their visits. The study found there was an increase from pre-visit to post-visit, showing that visitors gained a better understanding of biodiversity after their visit. The issue with this research is that these visitors immediately took this survey, more than likely this information will be easily forgotten. Additionally, the average difference from the pre-survey to post-survey was from a 69.8% to a 75.1%, which isn’t that drastic of an improvement (The Huffington Post 2014). Also, following Beckoff’s opinion, to what extent will the visitors actually use their new knowledge? More than likely these visitors will not only forget this information but not do anything to actually help towards animal conservation.
On the contrary, Rex Ettlin, Education Program Coordinator of the Oregon Zoo created an article explaining why zoo’s do provide an education for its visitors that make animal captivity worth it. Ettlin states that many families who can’t afford to just travel anywhere to see wildlife in person can simply see what’s around the world in their local community. He states that real life exposure to animals is crucial and just being with the animals and witnessing them is enough of a connection to gain more knowledge compared to never visiting the zoo (Clearing 2009). While this is true, Ettlin does carry a bias since he works at the Oregon Zoo and he lacks any data or research to provide credible information towards why the value of zoos are worth the captivity.
Whether or not visitors actually gain a valuable education from zoos is unclear. Research has been conducted but ultimately this debate is still fought through opinions. While it seems that most people do not gain any concrete knowledge about animals or conservation from zoos, it is without a doubt that people do draw a closer connection to animals after visiting the zoo, whether or not that connection lasts for a long time. Since this is such a serious controversial issue with the main pro-captivity argument being the fact that visitors become educated from zoos, I believe more research especially data must be put into this subject in order to come up with a clearer answer.

Works Cited:

A Zoo is a Great Educational Tool (2009, June 9). In Clearing . Retrieved from http://
clearingmagazine.org/archives/767

Beckoff, M. (2014, March 11). Do Zoos Really Teach Visitors Anything? . In Live Science .
Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/44006-do-zoos-teach.html

Beckoff, M. (2014, December 12). It’s Not Happening at the Zoo: There’s no Evidence Zoos
Educate in a Meaningful Way. In The Huffington Post . Retrieved from http://
www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-bekoff/its-not-happening-at-the-zoo_b_6315614.html

Montgomery, M. (2014, September 25). Breaking News: Research Suggests that Zoos Do NOT
‘Educate or Empower’ Children. In One Green Planet . Retrieved from http://
www.onegreenplanet.org/news/research-suggests-that-zoos-do-not-educate-or-empower-
children/

Zoos (2015). In Captive Animals’ Protection Society . Retrieved from http://
www.captiveanimals.org/our-work/zoos