Zoos capture the Australian public’s hearts and minds with sweet stories of new born baby animals. They lead many to believe that zoos play a vital role in the conservation of all captive species.  In fact, zoos are primarily entertainment facilities that profit from confining and displaying animals. [i]

Voiceless Policy:

Photograph kindly provided by Animals Voice

Voiceless acknowledges that species conservation is predominantly carried out by environmental organisations that operate endangered species breeding centres.  These breeding centres work to conserve wildlife in their natural environments by breeding endangered and threatened species in order to release them into the wild.  These centres are often closed to the public in order to keep the animals wild and enable them to be successfully reintroduced into their natural environments.

Therefore, Voiceless strongly supports conservation breeding programs that aim to re-introduce endangered or threatened animals to their natural environments  as well as sanctuaries that care for animals who are orphaned or injured due to human actions or settlement. [ii] 

Many people who are opposed to zoos and circuses do not see anything wrong with visiting an aquarium. However, aquaria are also businesses that profit from using animals for entertainment or perceived ‘education’. Marine mammals and other marine and aquatic life are held captive and deprived of many of their behavioural needs.  Research shows that aquatic animals also suffer abnormal behavioural and psychological responses and health problems due to captivity. [iii]
 

1. Animals kept in confinement, for example in zoos or circuses, exhibit a variety of senseless, repetitive behaviours that indicate neurosis or psychological distress. Elephants may rock or swing from side to side; bears, dogs and cats pace to and fro in their cage; monkeys stare; apes eat their faeces or vomit; and bears and giraffes bite or suck on their bars.  Zoologists call this behaviour ‘stereotyped behaviour’, which is also common in human captives due to boredom, loneliness, frustration, stress and psychological and habitat deprivation. [iv] 
2. Zoo animals are usually denied ‘natural selection’ through in-breeding, which eventually reduces the genetic variability of captive species. [v] They do not learn natural behaviour necessary for survival in the wild which reduces the possibility of successfully reintroducing into the wild. [vi] 
3. Zoos cannot properly cater for the living conditions of many animals. For example, in the wild, elephants are active for more than 16 hours a day, foraging over 10 kilometres while exercising their joints and ligaments, maintaining muscle tone, burning fat, ensuring good blood flow, and enjoying mental stimulation from covering such large areas. Zoo elephants die younger than their wild cousins and many of them suffer ailments from a combination of inactivity, inappropriate diets, loneliness, inadequate housing, lack of space, and stress. [vii]
   
4. For additional information, you can visit: Noaz Ark; Animal Liberation NSW and Zoocheck. 
5. To read an opinion piece by award-winning scientist Professor Marc Bekoff, on the keeping of elephants in captivity, follow this link.
6. For further reading, try this recent indepth article from The Age (19/01/2008) by Royce Millar and Cameron Houston, entitled: "Animal Rights and Wrongs".
   

• Through Voiceless’s 2005 Grants Program, we awarded a $5,000 prize to Timothy Gorski, Director – Rattle the Cage Productions for his film, ‘Lolita – A Slave to Entertainment’. The film addresses the cruel practice of capturing and confining wild marine mammals so as to make use of them for human entertainment. This is an issue of international concern and is equally relevant for Australian audiences as it is for those in the United States. 
• In 2004, the New South Wales Information and Rescue Service (WIRES) was the recipient of a $1000 grant from Voiceless.  Each year WIRES volunteers rescue, rehabilitate and release over 50,000 sick, injured or orphaned native wildlife. For more information see the WIRES website.

1. For example, Taronga Zoo has approximately 340 species and Western Plains Zoo has over 100 species (http://www.zoo.nsw.gov.au/content/view.asp?id=46).  However, the Taronga Zoo website only indicates the involvement of captive animals from 4 imported species (black rhino, chimpanzee, Fijian Crested Iguana and Lion Tamarin) in global conservation programs .  Refer to Recovery Programs, Taronga and Western Plains Zoo, http://www.zoo.nsw.gov.au/content/view.asp?id=119.  Furthermore, the Taronga zoo website only indicates the involvement of 6 endangered Australian animals in conservation programs.  Refer to Global Programs, Taronga and Western Plains Zoo, http://www.zoo.nsw.gov.au/content/view.asp?id=118, at 4 July 2006.
2. For example, the Giant panda captive breeding station at Wo Long Nature Reserve, Sichuan, China.   Established in 1975, there have been 55 births at this station, 42 of which led to successful raising of pandas. Most of the reserve consists of natural bamboo forest and is strictly off-limits, tourists have a chance to see pandas at a specialised breeding centre at the edge of the reserve.   The World Conservation Union (IUCN) Species Survival Commission, Case Studies of Forest Protected Areas, http://www.iucn.org/bookstore/HTML-books/BP12-forests-and-PAs/casestudy1.html, at 4 July 2006.   
3. Jordi Casamitjana, Aquatic Zoos: A critical study of UK public aquaria in the year 2004 (2004), The Captive Animals’ Protection Society, http://www.captiveanimals.org/aquarium/aquaticzoos.pdf at 4 July 2006.  
4. What’s happening at the ZOO, Animal Liberation Australia, http://www.animal-lib.org.au/lists/zoo/zoo.shtml, at 4 April 2006.
5. Zoo myths: Zoos preserve endangered species, Noaz Ark, http://www.noazark.org/myths/Myth4.htm, at 4 April 2006.
6. Auckland Zoo’s senior curator admitted in 1994 that it was unlikely that the zoo’s orang-utans or any of their offspring would ever be reintroduced into the wild.  A conservation assessment of captive orang-utans found that once they become dependent on humans, they were unadaptable.  Cited in Zoocheck:Threatened Species, Wildlife New Zealand, http://www.wildlife.org.nz/zoocheck/threat.htm, at 4 April 2006.
7. Furthermore, no Australian zoo has ever bred an elephant. The approximately 130 Asian elephants in American zoos have produced 12 offspring since 2000. Seven of those were born dead or died within days of birth. David Hancocks, Save Elephants From Zoos, The Age, 19 June 2006, http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/save-elephants-from-zoos/ 2006/06/18/1150569207616.html?page=2, at 27 June 2006.