"Crdamz" wrote in
I really have mixed feelings about zoos, too. The fact is, zoos use
baby
animals to draw in the public and increase proceeds---but when those
animals
grow up and they don't draw the crowds in anymore, they are likely to be
sold
to other, less scrupulous venues where they won't be well cared for and
become
targets for abuse.

This may be true for some private zoos, which IMO should be made illegal
everywhere. However, all respectable zoos carry out very valuable work in
promoting species that would be facing extinction otherwise. There are
programmes and contracts that cover zoos all over the world, in which many
endangered species are bred, and their gene pool is maintained so that it is
varied enough (i.e. no inbreeding, this is why zoos exchange animals
systematically). All this is very expensive, of course, so getting a lot of
visitors is certainly one goal. Of the animals in one of these reputable
zoos, some 90-95% were born in captivity, and would hardly be able to make
it in the wild. The 5-10% that were not are animals that have been found in
the wild, hurt or injured in some way that they cannot make it in the wild
any longer.

As an example, I could mention the sea eagle that was found near our summer
island one autumn. Some idiot had shot its wing full of buckshot. Sea eagles
are a protected species here. The eagle was taken to the Helsinki City Zoo
(where my sister works) and nursed back to health, but it will never fly
again, because the wing was too badly damaged. However, this female eagle
has had a number of eaglets, who have been planted back out in the wild to
improve the population of sea eagles. This species was near to extinction in
the 60s-70s, but is well on its way to recovery by now. I don't have the
exact figures, but they are really doing well. Of course, it's not just
thanks to this one eagle and her mate, it has taken a lot of other things,
like feeding the eagles in winter and guarding their nests against
intruders, but zoos can do very valuable work, too. It's not necessarily
just a money-maker.

Wow, better get off the soapbox now.

--
Marina, Frank and Nikki
Email marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi
Pics at http://uk.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/frankiennikki