ReadingAnimals

I was reading about a recent animal law conference on Crosscut today, and this article was listed as “related.” It is a great essay by David Hancocks on the plight of elephants in urban zoos and the ethics of keeping them there: A challenge for urban zoos: Put the animals first

While it was written a while ago, its message is still timely. Consider this simple statement and all of its implications for elephants (and other animals), which is the grand finale:

Unless zoos change their philosophies and focus on all of nature and not simply on an animal collection and, most critically, put those animals’ needs ahead of all others, these institutions will drift ever closer to being just anachronisms, embarrassingly parading in their imperial garb.

Yup. That about sums it up.