Freedom and Rights Animals belong in their natural habitat.

It is a breach of their natural rights to take them away, and put them in cages. All animals that are kept in captivity should be released into the wild. Every day animals are taken out of their natural habitat, purely for our benefit and enjoyment. According to owery !"##$%, &studies have shown that these animals are suffering from severe cases of depression, abnormal behavior and physiological distress' !p. (%. Animals can also be stressed by untrained keepers. )ut many species have an innate fear of humans, and keeping them too close to visitors can be an intense stress factor for them. Also, some species are nocturnal and e*posing them to visitors in daytime can cause a great deal of stress in them. In time, stress translates in illness and loss of the animal. +ne of primary benefits of a ,oo is that people can gain greater knowledge of how animals behave and operate. -his knowledge is only useable. however, if the animals are observed acting natural, as they would in the wild -he only way to understand an animal properly is to see it in its natural environment. /oos give totally artificial and misleading views by isolating animals from there ecosystem. If people want to see how animals behave they should go out into the wild to see real animals, not ones who are physiologically distressed. 0ust think of less fortunate and poor ,oos, the conditions the animals are forced to be in are e*tremely bad. 1ost of them keep their animals in wire cages which are often too small to allow the animals to move around. 1ost of these cages have cement floors, which is not good for anyone and lack any opportunities for the animals to act naturally. -o make it worse most of these animals die young due to the harsh conditions they are forced to live with. A study in "##2 found that Asian elephants in European ,oos have a ma*imum life span of just (2.3 years compared to 4(.$ years for wild elephants in an Asian logging camp. /oos can be cruel jails for these animals and should be outlawed unless they provide the animals with a friendly and roomy habitat.

References awry, ). !"##$, 5ovember%. &I am an animal6 -he story of fingrid 5ewkirk and 7eta.' Daily Variety, !p. (%.