Zoos

Zoos are wonderful things. Some people think that zoos are "bad" as they cage animals that should be left in the wild. In a perfect word that would be wonderful. However humanity has spread and is destroying the wilderness that many animals call home. Deforestation, housing reaching out further and further, poaching, lack of care, ignorance, heck even the Arctic isn't safe anymore thanks to humanity and global warming. Zoos are a refuge. Many have breeding programs hoping to stop the extinction of many animals. With the polar icecaps melting, perhaps the only place for polar bears to live safely will be zoos. Zoos are improving too. Most do their best to recreate the environment the animals would live in. They also strive to give the animals opportunities for enrichment. Painting, for example. In fact, tonight I'm going to the Seneca Park Zoo for an art auction. The paintings are created by the animals and the sales will help the zookeepers help them. You can't say that zoos and the zookeepers do not care for the animals. I think back to "the little zoo that could", the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo and the multiple evacuations of all of the animals due to successive hurricanes. I just saw on TV a zoo in Miami, Florida recounting their dealings with hurricanes. I'm grateful I live in an area that doesn't worry about hurricanes! Support your local zoo, and perhaps your not so local one too. They do their best to provide the best possible environment for the animals and give people a chance to see animals they otherwise wouldn't and perhaps give back for what humanity has taken from these creatures.