Additionally, i’d rather see resources used on preventing the causes of more species extinction, than on trying to save the last living heads of some species. And i also try to do this prevention myself by lowering my demands for resources (being vegan, not buying car, not upgrading or buying new hardware without good thinking, lowering my waste production and energy consumption, supporting organizations evangelizing this).

I’m sure you had taken into account that many zoos (in-fact 100% of zoos in Australia and New Zealand) host conservation efforts at their zoos that rely on tourism to both fund their projects and raise awareness.

On conservation, there are some heartbreaking documentaries about the big game animal parks in Africa which rely 100% on privately funded hunting on their grounds to fund animal conservation efforts. Its the basis of an ongoing huge ethical dilemma for the zoo keepers. to me it’s like screwing for virginity when you get two virgins for every one you screw… the math adds up but it’ll always be wrong.

While awareness can be mostly taken care of with youtube etc. Digital video and interactive digital content hasn’t yet claimed the same transaction-based value as gate tickets for a trip to the zoo (as a physical location) but some would argue that the scale of the internet provides a larger market. nobody knows ‘the size of the prize’ for attempting something like this and my understanding is that current efforts are conservative at best. The cams in zoos are a great intermediary but substituting anything electronic for the benefits of a day outdoors with the family is going to be a very very very hard sell

I am all for breeding programs but only today was discussing with my wife how I could not keep animals that are “contained” as I never feel the container is big enough.

Not exactly linked to a zoo, but it has a very nice catalogue of videos.

While some of the animals look miserable to me (polar bears, hippos, etc), some species are being helped by zoos. (I’d love to see them let the lions really hunt … they always look so bored.)

I think the newer and remodeled zoos have better habitats for the animals but there’s still a lot of work to be done …

That being said, I have to strongly agree with Kennon on a few points. There *is* a difference between seeing a youtube video and being a few feet away from a wild animal, having it look right at you, smelling it, etc etc. If you want kids to empathize with animals, you’re not going to be able to achieve it with youtube alone.

I know many animals at zoos are (or were) injured in some way that would lead to certain death in the wild, or were the victims of habitat destruction, etc. I don’t know if this is true of all of them. But given that, and the importance of teaching children about life on earth, I think that zoos are a bearable necessity.

Though seeing animals in small artificial habitats may depress me, I will put on a happy face and take my son as soon as he is old enough, because I think the benefits to him outweigh the cost to me, and ultimately, the benefits to all animals outweigh the cost to those animals.

http://www.vegetablecruelty.com/

My wife really likes zoos, but I find them wrong on a visceral level. The last zoo I went to was the Central Park Zoo, and seeing the polar bears (and all of the animals) with such a small area to roam and swim, compared to their natural habitat[1], was profoundly disturbing.

[1] Yes, global warming, humans are bastards, etc., I hate that too.