Zoo Ethics and Conservation

What can a zoo be defined as?

'A park or an institution in which living animals are kept and usually exhibited to the public'

When where modern zoos established?

1800s

What are some of the ethical concerns raised by zoos?

- Suffering related to capture and transport

• Concerns over quality of captive care

• Confinement (liberty?)

• Fate of surplus animals

• 'Disrespectful' to use animals in this way

• Zoos vary enormously in quality

What are some of the welfare concerns with keeping animals in zoos?

• Many species are difficult to keep in captivity

• Captivity usually restricts behaviour

- Feeding/hunting behaviour

- Social/reproductive behaviour

- Exploratory behaviour

- Locomotory behaviour

- Resting/comfort behaviour

BUT Captivity also offers benefits (e.g. food, veterinary care, protection from predators)

What should the conditions be for keeping wild animals captive?

• The animal's basic physical and physiological needs must be met

- Basic decency on the assumption that animals have moral status

- Those keeping an animals captive assume responsibility for their care

• The animal must be provided with a life that is at least as good as it would likely have in the wild

• Comparable or better than wild equivalent

Are these conditions justifiable? Are they achievable or morally ideal?

What is the moral presumption of zoo animals?

• Reasonable to presume that by removing wild animals from their habitats and confining them that we are harming them?

- i.e. impacting on their interests negatively

• If so

• If we are justified in keeping animals in zoos, it must be because there are some important benefits obtained only by doing so

What are some of the benefits or justification for zoos?

• Entertainment

• Education

• Research

• Species preservation

• Encouraging respect for wildlife

Describe the entertainment aspect as a justification for zoos.

• Important for the establishment of early zoos

• Also important for contemporary ZOOS

• Most people visit zoos to be entertained

• Zoos must cater for this desire to remain financially viable e.g. animals must be visible

• Is this a reasonable justification?

  • Minor human interest, major animal interests

Describe the education aspect as a justification for zoos.

• Early justification - argument that entertainment is linked to education - creates interest

• Little evidence that zoos are very effective

• Lack of real educational effort?

• Apathetic public

  • Spend little time at most enclosures, don't read information

• What do we want people to learn?

• Facts about animals, facts about conservation

• Are zoos the best way to achieve this?

• Films, or even empty enclosures just as effective?

Describe the research aspect as a justification for zoos.

• Zoos support research

- Funding for specific projects (usually in the field)

- Employ scientists

- Make otherwise inaccessible animals available for study

• Issues

- Is study of captive animals valid e.g. can we rely on their behavioural responses to be representative of wild counterparts?

- Wildlife research methods improving e.g. tracking technology

- Lots of research into improving captive care

- Many zoos do no research at all

Describe the conservation aspect as a justification for zoos.

• The role of zoos in the conservation of biodiversity became a legal obligation in Europe in 2002 - implementation of the European Zoos Directive

• Most widely used reason to refute skepticism over the keeping of wild animals in captivity

• Evidence that contribution to conservation is significant, but no reliable mechanism to assess zoos' conservation performance

• Ok for individual animals to suffer to save the species? or animals with suboptimal care in captivity

• Some of the most successful conservation efforts have taken place in specialised centres, away from the public

• Many non endangered species are displayed

What are the aims of conservation?

• Protect natural levels of biodiversity

• Protect endangered species

• Restore biodiversity degraded by humans activity

What is biodiversity?

• 'The diversity of life'

• It includes animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and microorganisms

• The diversity of life begins with genetic differences - between species and within species

What is extinction?

• Disappearance of a species

• Risk of extinction emphasizes those species that are most endangered

How do we value biodiversity?

• Intrinsic value

- Rare and endangered species, charismatic, scale

• Instrumental value

- Spiritual value

- Scientific and educational value

- Strategic value (Flagship and umbrella species)

- Economic value

- Ecological value

- Potential value

What are some of the main causes of animal extinction?

• Habitat destruction and fragmentation

• Diseases and parasites

• Introduction of non-native species

• Pollution

• Overexploitation

• Wildlife crime

What is reproductive success?

• Reproductive success is the individual's production of offspring per breeding event or lifetime

• This can be severely challenged by stresses such as habitat loss and poor nutritional state, due to the altered state of conservation of the animal/species

What are some methods in which populations can be managed?

• In conservation, populations can be managed through culls of overabundant species such as Red deer in Scotland

• Captive breeding programmes and habitat protection of species are used in wildlife conservation to increase numbers

What is “in situ” conservation?

In situ conservation is the process of protecting plant and animal species in their natural habitats.

What is done in the environment itself, seems to be the more preferred approach to conservation

• Sustainable management of the territory

• Population management

• Protection and restoration of degraded areas

• Development of strategies for the conservation of environments

• Introduction of legislation

• Information, education and raised awareness

• Involvement of neighbouring communities

• The development of alternative economic mechanisms

What is “ex situ” conservation?

Ex situ conservation means protecting endangered plants, animals, and genetic material "off-site"—outside of their natural habitats.

• Captive breeding and population relocation

• Usually used as a last resort

• When it is the only choice, because a species no longer exists in the wild

Where does ex situ conservation occur?

Zoo, wildlife parks, aquariums, etc.

• Cross-fostering & double-clutching

• Humans raise young

• Artificial insemination

• Cryogenics, cloning, etc.

• Moving animals around (artificial dispersal)

• Desire to help prevent the species from going extinct.

What are the main purposes of zoos and ex situ conservation?

• Consists of breeding animals in captivity

• Conservation breeding involves the careful and coordinated population management

• Specific breeding programmes to secure genetically healthy populations

• Captive populations can be used:

> To raise awareness and generating funds for in situ conservation

> To be returned to their natural habitat (when possible)

Why might some believe that zoos cultivate the wrong attitudes?

• Could be argued zoos have a responsibility to encourage an attitude of respect for animals

• Recognition that animals have importance in their own right

• Do zoos in fact encourage people to think that animals are for us by displaying them for our amusement?

• Or making them do activities that anthropomorphize them

Why are Dolphinaria often shunned?

• Animals sourced from wild

• Welfare in captivity is likely to be poor

• Public don't see natural behaviour - see trained behaviors

• Focus on entertainment

• Not endangered species

What are some of the different forms of ethics?

Human-centred ethics

- Only humans have intrinsic worth

Sentience-centred ethics

- Only sentient animals have intrinsic worth

Life-centred ethics

- All living things have intrinsic moral worth

- 'Reverence for Life'

— Do even plants have interests and welfare?

Environment-centred ethics

- Not just individuals but 'wholes' count

- Encompasses respect for biodiversity

- Must 'preserve integrity, stability and beauty of biotic community'

What are some of the difference sbetween eco-centric ethics and animal ethics?

1. Unlike animal ethics, eco-centric ethics shows little concern for captive animals

2. Eco-centric ethics is concerned about more than just sentient animals

3. Animal ethics is concerned with pain and death, sometimes seen as essential parts of the life process

4. Eco-centric ethics is more concerned with systems or structures than individuals

What are the main features of ethics - considering wild animal welfare?

• Welfare of animals in nature often poor

• 'Natural' not necessarily good benchmark for captive animal welfare (For example, dentistry is not natural, but is beneficial for welfare in captive species)

Why do some people argue against doing anything for wild animals?

Arguments against taking responsibility for wildlife:

- Problems so big, absurd to start

- Knowledge and expertise lacking

- Unpredictable consequences of altering ecosystems

- Interfering with natural selection

- Stress of treatment and captivity

- Unknown or low survival rate

Why do some people argue FOR intervening with for wild animals?

Arguments for intervening to help wild animals:

- Can enhance knowledge

- Can enhance respect for environment

- Can be successful and thus improve welfare of wild animals

- Treatment of endangered species

- Compensate for human acts (treat wild animals where we have been responsible for the problem)

What are some of the direct, unintended harm humans have caused for wildlife?

• Communication towers

• Vehicle collisions

• Windows

• Cropping operations

• Fisheries by-catch

• Ghost fishing

• Pesticide drift

• Oil spills

What is wildlife rehabilitation?

Could be defined as

• Attempt to return the animal to full health

• Attempt to return it to a reasonably functional condition

• different goals with ethical implications, yet many programs are vague about what they are trying to achieve

• General agreement that the health of wild populations should be of greater concern than welfare of the individual animal

What are some issues with release of wildlife after rehabilitation?

• Lack of info about how best to release an animal

• Is it better to transport an animal for release a long distance (into a more suitable range) or release near original stranding site?

• Ignorance about the reproductive potential of release animals

• Risk of abnormal behaviour in the wild resulting from human interactions

• Cases of 'nuisance' animals, begging from humans

• Capacity to forage successfully once released

• Slow death from malnutrition is a serious welfare concern

• Ignorance about long term survival

• Paucity of information, limited success, publicity for successes but not failures

What are some of the arguments for treatment, specifically regarding wildlife?

• Injuries often human induced (e.g. road traffic accident)

• Could argue that a vet should provide attention to an animal of any species in an emergency (even just euthanasia)

• Treating wildlife can be good publicity for veterinary practices, via local newspaper articles and TV or radio mentions

• Knowledge of wildlife could be useful in understanding transmission and pathogenesis of certain diseases

• Some vets enjoy the challenges of treating wild animals, adding variety to their day and providing a feeling of altruistic satisfaction

What are some of the arguments AGAINST treatment, specifically regarding wildlife?

• Do we know enough about the biology and natural history of the species to be able to fulfill all its dietary and husbandry needs?

• Do we have suitable facilities to keep the animal in, not just in the emergency period but also at a later date during recovery, when the animal might need more space and become difficult or dangerous to handle?

• Could the animal pick up an infection during captivity that it could then transfer to other wild animals on release?

• Does the animal have good long term prospects? Will it be able to return successfully to the wild, or will it have to remain in captivity?

• If the animal has to remain in captivity is this against its interests and is the cost of long term care feasible?

• Euthanasia at an early stage could be the most humane action a veterinarian can take (especially if the needs of the animal cannot be met)

• Once released the fate of the animal is unknown