The topic for this debate is "Public zoos should be banned and all animals released back to their natural habitat."

LDragonFire will be arguing the pro position and will open the debate.
laughable3 will argue the con position.

Each debater will have one opening statement each. This will be followed by 3 alternating replies each. There will then be one closing statement each and no rebuttal.

Character limits are no longer in effect. You may use as many characters as a single post allows.

Editing is strictly forbidden. This means any editing, for any reason. Any edited posts will be completely deleted. This prevents cheating. If you make an honest mistake which needs fixing, you must U2U me. I will do a limited amount of editing for good cause. Please use spell check before you post.

Opening and closing statements must not contain any images, and must have no more than 3 references. Excluding both the opening and closing statements, only two images and no more than 5 references can be included for each post.

The Socratic Debate Rule is in effect. Each debater may ask up to 5 questions in each post, except for in closing statements- no questions are permitted in closing statements. These questions should be clearly labeled as "Question 1, Question 2, etc.

When asked a question, a debater must give a straight forward answer in his next post. Explanations and qualifications to an answer are acceptable, but must be preceded by a direct answer.

Responses should be made within 24 hours. One single 24 hour extension can be used by a member by requesting it in the thread. If 24 hours passes without response, you may proceed with your next post. Members who exceed 24 hours run the risk of losing their post, but may still post up until their opponent has submitted their next response.

This is a challenge match. The winner will receive 2 ranking points, the loser will lose two ranking points.

It is my great honor to be the first to debate laughable3, and many thanks to both my opponent and for Memoryshock for this opportunity to participate in another debate here on ATS. I look forward to a challenging and hopefully educational experience.

Opening Statement:
"Public zoos should be banned and all animals released back to their natural habitat."

Zoos are an idea that looks very good on paper. We humans capture animals from the wild or animals are purchased from private sources, we then lock them in cages and often times these cages are simple concrete boxes with steel bars, and then a endless parade of gawking human visitors begins to flow by, causing great stress and anxiety to the individual animal.

The basic problem with zoos is that they are completely unnatural. Animals are often kept in small cramped cages, the boredom alone can be maddening, seeing the same scenery and the endless flow of humans with there cameras pointing and staring at these creatures misery day after day.

Zoos around the world need money to operate, and because of this reason the care, comfort, and general well being of each animal is not the main factor, but the bottom line is. Boredom, isolation, often living in unsanitary conditions, we humans have accepted the fact that it is ok to keep animals locked in cages for our enjoyment, we will claim it’s for educational reasons or we are helping their species propagate, but in the end we are doing nothing but turning living breathing, beautiful creatures into objects or items for our own entertainment.

One of the ugly truths about humans keeping animals in zoos are the physical abuse these animals sometime suffer. Trainers have a history of beating these animals into submission, so it isn’t surprising when one of these animals’ reaches a breaking point and turns on there trainers, then after the fact the animal are destroyed. For some reason humans are shocked or surprised when these types of events take place, but it is only natural that they do, we take a animal away from there natural setting and force them to conform to what we want, this in itself is a crime against nature.

Think about when you visit your local zoo with your family, you spend a few hours in this zoo, but think about each animal there they are not just there for a few hours or a few days they are there for years and if they ever do see a change in scenery it is because they have been sold to another zoo only to spend year after year in the same surroundings.

The word zoo is just a nice word used to describe a animal prison.

I want to thank dragonfire and Memoryshock for this wonderful opportunity. There are some great debates on this board and I hope this one doesn't disappoint.

Opening statement: "Some animals should be kept in zoos for conservation and educational reasons."

Zoos provide an invaluable educational tool for the young children in this world. While all zoo animals are kept in "cages" in the strict sense of the word there are innumerable animals kept in "cages" that are wide open spaces that are populated with flora and fauna that would be found in that animals natural habitat.

Zoos also provide a very very valuable conservation method for all animals but especially endangered species. Without zoos there is truly no telling how many more species would be extinct.

Zoos are no longer marketed as an entertainment venue but are instead marketed as a place to learn about nature, the environment, conservation, and to see and learn about endangered species.

First Reply

While natural selection would likely breed out some of the wild animal "instincts," how many generations will have to come and go before a truly measurable difference is made?

Many factors come into play when we start talking natural selection, not only environment, but also DNA. As we know DNA is subject to random mutations all the time and without those mutations no genes can be passed on that weren't there to begin with. Even when a mutation occurs it still has to survive (even in captivity) and be able to reproduce before it can make any kind of difference in the long run.

Captive breeding for endangered species may appear to be a "Hail Mary" but if we humans are destroying their environment or are hunting a species to extinction the least we can do is give the animal a second chance whilst we greedy humans fix the problem that got the animal in that situation to begin with.

My opponent suggests protecting the animals in the wild rather than capturing them and putting them in zoos.

Question 1

Beyond the laws we have in place to protect endangered species how do you propose we protect these animals in the wild?

"Public zoos should be banned and all animals released back to their natural habitat."
Third Reply

Money:
I think zoos are a waste of money, some zoos use tax payer money and some are completely private. Surely there is a better use of our money {education money} than teaching our kids that it’s ok to cage animals till they go insane. We are not teaching our kids about a animals natural behavior, all they will see is the result of years of imprisonment, boredom, and misery and the kids will walk away thinking this is how these animals act. We are not getting our moneys worth buy turning the suffering and confinement of these creatures into some sort of amusement park for our own self gratification.

I say if we are going to spend taxpayer money we should invest in huge nature reserves and let Mother Nature do the rest. Give the animals a wild life for both predators and prey. It’s my opinion that in the long run it would be better for mammals, birds, and plant life.

This reply was made after waiting for over 48 hours for a reply from laughable3.

Closing Statement:

I don't have anything to add to this. I stand by the argument I have already put forward. I personally learned a lot form researching this debate.

LDragonFire wins this one by forfeit.