The zoo may seem truly like it is one of the most happiest places on earth for us humans to enjoy, but for the animals it's a true nightmare to endure. Sure, sometimes they may look happy and playful but that's just another part of the show. Animals aren't meant to be locked in a cage the way they are at the zoo. There are many cruelties behind the closed doors of a zoo. The animals are kept in highly unnatural conditions. They are shoved in cages that are not as big as they need to be and are often alone in their habits. It's a lonely existence to just muck about in some dried up bushes and soggy mud puddles while screaming children gawk at them and pick their nose. That's barely a life.
Imagine humans, if they were forced to be entrapped the same way that the animals in the zoo are. We wouldn't be able to bear it in the slightest. The animals can hardly handle it themselves. As studies show, many animals often commit suicide in their enclosures due to the depression of being ripped away from their good life spent with their families to live in exile from their once happy and free lives. All this for the entertainment of humans who don't even really know what is happening to these poor animals.
Another thing that sometimes tends to happen at zoo are baby animals. Although adorable to look at for us humans sometimes things don't always work out for the animal. Sometimes the zoo simply cannot handle or be able to take care of the little creature so they send them to a different zoo. This saddens not only the baby being ultimately ripped from its mother, but the mother and the family of the baby animal, who then causes the mother to go into a huge state of depression and sadness. These baby animals that are kept in captivity their entire life barely know how to at all act like a regular wild animal. They have become way too dependent on the humans who had taken care of them and cannot function or act properly to the other animals that surround them. All this and more in the nice zoos of America.
As hard as it may be to believe, because no one would want to think of a poorly treated animal, but there are enclosures even more unfit, depressing, and cruel to animals. Popular documentaries, such as "The Cove" or "Black Fish" are unfortunately more common than what is humans would want to believe. By attending zoos, we humans are supporting such outstandingly horrible human behaviors to torment these poor helpless animals. I cannot possibly think of anything more monstrous than to hurt an animal who doesn't know any better and does not even know or understand why the things that are tragically happening to them are happening.