You may have heard about or seen footage of a live donkey being fed to tigers at a Chinese zoo. The video shows the donkey on a cart. The cart is tipped by zoo personnel, and the donkey slides into murky green water. The donkey struggles to swim, and it doesn't take long for it to drift over to an island infested with tigers. As expected, the donkey becomes a meal for said tigers.
The video caused an eruption in public response, and rightfully so. People were quick to deem this inhumane and wrong. I discovered that the donkey was supposed to be relocated to another location, but was not for some reason. The zookeepers must have not known what to do with it, so they supposed they would save on feed and allow the tigers to chow down on the donkey. Due to an increase of wealth in China, more and more people visit zoos. It's common for people to throw trash at the animals, so an incident like this may have occurred in the name of public entertainment. You can watch the video here: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/170...
As insane as this incident is, it's only part of my beef with zoos, aquariums, marine parks, etc.
While some of these places are also sanctuaries that focus on nursing animals and sending them back into the wild, animals in places like these are generally subject to horrible treatment. Animals are separated from their families and confined in small spaces, which sometimes cause them to be hostile towards other animals and humans(see Harambe, 2016). These animals are not as healthy as they would be in the wild, as they are also fed an insufficient diet and in some cases, such as at SeaWorld, forced to perform.
With that being said, you probably won't be seeing me at Zoo Atlanta or the Georgia Aquarium anytime soon. Some serious changes must be made to the way they are treated for the sake of their health, because these inherently innocent beings do not deserve this treatment.
