AN UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION BY
animalEQUALITY
There is ample evidence to suggest that the apathetic public remains blissfully unaware of the plight of many species, either that or they simply don’t care and a 1999 study demonstrated that recreation was the main reason for visits to the zoo, rather than an educational experience (Turley, 1999). The study concluded that visitors wanted to ‘see and enjoy animals’, rather than understand them.
Of course entertainment and education can be linked, but studies on the proportion of time that visitors spend at exhibits indicate that visitors learn very little at the zoo.
Signage is often poor, offering little useful information and it has been stated that animals are viewed briefly and in rapid succession; people tend to concentrate on so called ‘babies and beggars’ (Ludwig 1981), in other words, the cute and funny.
If zoos teach anything, they teach us a sad and dangerous lesson. They teach us that humans have the right to enslave other animals.
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