Putting zoos into perspective

'Captivity is a terrible existence for any intelligent self-aware species ...”

-Judge John L. Segal, July 2012 - trial court decision on Los Angeles Zoo's controversial elephant exhibit

Forty years ago, March 30, 1976, the Iowa City Council voted to close City Park Zoo. A standing-room-only crowd applauded the decision ending nine months of controversy over quality care for the animals.

Iowa City had brought two leopards to its zoo for temporary housing. Several University of Iowa zoologists questioned confining large carnivores in, literally, dog kennels.

The zoo itself, a cramped outdated facility, became the larger issue for the public. The structural problems, insufficient funding, and lack of professional care caused stress and, at times, suffering and death for the animals. Even the popular prairie dog exhibit lacked money for upgrades and staffing.

Reflecting its sense of responsibility for the animals, the council's vote set a precedent for other communities and was much ahead of its time.

We've confined wild and captive-bred animals since ancient times. The Victorian menagerie (one of everything, the more exotic the better) was embraced in the United States. Zoos offered a family excursion, a chance to experience with astonishment the smells, sounds and physical presence of animals from distant lands. Unfortunately this was all at the animals' expense.

The ornate concrete animal houses reeked of the animals pacing behind metal bars. A name plate with species and country of origin provided 'education.” Visitors remained ignorant and indifferent to the animals' physical needs or birth place.

Few zoos provided the minimal conditions essential for the animals' well-being. Mortality rates were staggering. Animals died from improper care, diet, or the weather. They were crippled by unsuitable floor surfaces. Their offspring were sold to other parks, animal dealers or roadside zoos, which were notoriously inadequate in funding and care. An international black market in illegal wildlife plundered and decimated wild populations for both zoos and the exotic pet trade.

The surviving animals lived in cold, often filthy concrete cells or displays designed in ignorance of their spatial requirements. Neurotic, overweight, suffering boredom and monotony, many went quietly mad.

In the 1970s attitudes toward animals began changing. Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation was published. Environmentalists and social activists challenged the public's ignorance and arrogance toward the natural world. The Federal Laboratory Animal Welfare Act was expanded to regulate and license zoos and exhibitions using USDA inspectors.

A national movement to improve zoological parks began. Zoos were closed. Others underwent expensive renovations. The operative words were 'natural habitat” and 'education.”

Fast forward to the present. The fundamental problem remains - zoos still fail to understand, or are unable or unwilling to accommodate their animals' physical and psychological needs. Despite genuine improvements, cramped enclosures, improper care, and squalid conditions still cause physical and mental suffering. Illness, injury and premature deaths related to captivity are all too common.

Even large zoos engage in unscrupulous practices, trading animals as commodities with questionable sources, even importing them from the wild. Breeding programs bring patrons and revenue, but result in overcrowding. Surplus animals are still passed into a dark system of lesser zoos, auctions, or worse.

The tigers at Cricket Hollow roadside zoo, near Manchester, Iowa, were surplus animals - the result of endangered species breeding. Captive breeding programs for endangered species seek to preserve viable gene pools, but the animals can't return to the wild. Critics say some programs compromise the animals' well-being, and are an excuse to display charismatic species that draw crowds, neglecting less popular, but equally endangered smaller species. Insufficient funding and staffing, and lax enforcement of minimal federal standards continue.

Zoos are aware of public concerns, bad publicity, even lawsuits. Legislatures and courts question cruel training and handling measures. Shocking undercover expóses demand reform. Animal advocates question the ethics of keeping wild animals in captivity.

Scientific evidence now confirms what many have long known - confining animals with disregard for their physical and social needs is inherently cruel.

More importantly, many large, intelligent, social, far-ranging species (like elephants) simply do not thrive in captivity. Their requirements are too enormous. They do not belong in zoos. Period. Certified sanctuaries are an alternative offering large mammals that can't be released to the wild, a semblance of a normal existence.

Zoos dismiss these ideas as extremist. They are not. David Hancocks, former director of Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo comments: 'Elephants don't thrive in zoos. We didn't understand elephants very well in the 1970s and 80s. But there is overwhelming scientific evidence today that shows the harmful impact of captivity.”

Two documentaries released in 2013-CNN's Blackfish (SeaWorld's orcas) and HBO's An Apology for Elephants were game changers for public awareness. Both orcas and elephants are the iconic big ticket draws. Large and dramatic, they are intelligent, social, matriarchal, forming lifelong family attachments, and the great wanderers of oceans and plains.

Watching these films the viewer comprehends the inhumane and impossible compromises the animals must endure. One is left feeling shame and outrage at our blind insensitivity.

Controversies affecting public support are growing. Many zoo staff struggle fiercely for the animals' welfare, battling inadequate budgets and unsympathetic administrators. Some zoos recognize their deficiencies and voluntarily close exhibits. The Detroit Zoo is an example. As scientists and animal advocates use the animals' own biology to verify concerns, progress can be made.

Yet powerful and moneyed interests support the status quo. The federal government continues its role as enabler. In a stunning development the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has approved an application to import 18 young wild elephants from Swaziland to three U.S. zoos - Dallas, Wichita, and Omaha. Despite a letter signed by 80 conservationists calling the move unethical, options to keep the animals in Africa were ignored.

Elephants are dying out in zoos faster than they are reproducing. Critics accuse corporations of restocking their zoos from the wild under the pretext of preserving the elephants.

Zoos will continue for the foreseeable future. Animals can't be released to the wild, and for many their wild homes are vanishing. Certified sanctuaries are a humane alternative but can only accommodate so many animals, and there are bills to pay. Stopping breeding, allowing animals to finish their lives in appropriate environments, and then phasing out displays is an acceptable plan.

The roadside zoos (the bear in the corncrib), despite sincere intentions, should be closed. Money, staff, and adequate space are not possible. Surplus animals should be put down rather than subjected to a life of inadequate care. Sanctuaries and shelters are not humane if they are overloaded with high-maintenance animals. Funding and proper space remain limitations that must be faced.

Public scrutiny, careful federal (USDA) enforcement and oversight, and legislative and legal action, coupled with vigilance by the scientific community and animal advocates will ensure forward motion. But the status quo is powerful, and generating revenue is difficult without compromising animal welfare.

The most persistent and difficult justification for zoos comes from the public itself - the zoo visitor's 'love” for animals. The zoos' abuses are overlooked by a naive public that wants to see the animals, regardless. This is a useless, selfish love that indulges itself at the expense of the animals.

Zoo animals don't need our love. They need our respect. They need our understanding of their physical, social, and psychological requirements, and they need protection under the law.

' Antonia Russo, of Solon, was the director of the Animal Protection League of Johnson County when the Iowa City Zoo was closed in March, 1976.