At the Central Park Zoo, you can explore one of our planet’s greatest assets: its biological diversity. With snow leopards from Central Asia, lemurs from Africa, grizzly bears from North America and penguins from Antarctica, the zoo houses over 130 species — all in about 6.5 acres. The ability to see such miraculous creatures up close is fascinating. However, our enjoyment is at the expense of these beautiful creatures’ lives. Only when we abolish zoos can we replace captivity with conscience.

​In a matter of minutes, you can walk from one end of the Central Park Zoo to another, visiting countless animals sitting in enclosures that mock each of their natural habitats on your journey. But these animal enclosures are small, awkward and wildly inadequate for some of the zoo’s largest wildlife. In its natural habitat, a snow leopard walks as far as 20-25 miles per day, a feat that’s only possible in a zoo by circling a small cage for mindnumbing amounts of time. Even New Yorkers, some of the most frequent walkers in the country, only average about 3-5 miles per day. We could never understand how devoid of freedom and fulfillment these animals are. ​

The Manhattan zoo is home to twin snow leopards named River and Summit, who were born in the facility in 2013. They are just two of the growing population of animals across the world that will live and die in the very enclosure they were born in. 

The zoo promotes wildlife conservation and youth education, but that intervention comes at the cost of the animals’ agency and self sufficiency. Whether specific species are endangered or not, controlled environments like zoos are a breeding ground for learned helplessness, where every meal comes pre-caught and is served to these animals left to atrophy in isolation — what once seemed like a hotel will quickly reveal itself as a prison. Lions were meant to hunt, not wait patiently for a curated meal.

Despite the safety and ease these animals live with at these sanctuaries, the question remains: Why do humans have the right to disrupt these animals’ lives just to mindlessly snap a few pictures? Why do these animals need to be transported across continents and oceans merely for our entertainment?

Zoos sprouted in the United States beginning in the late 1800s. But back then, they didn’t disguise their cruelty with lush vegetation and glass pane windows — the brutality of their work was much more obvious. Animals trapped behind iron barred cages were expected to bare their teeth and act primal to engage the audience. This kind of evil created “Zoochosis,” a term for the psychosis animals in confined spaces experience, such as abnormal, repetitive behaviors like pacing, swaying and, in extreme cases, self-mutilation. 

But these institutions’ cruel behavior has continued into the present day. In 2015, a former orca trainer at SeaWorld condemned the organization for how they treated the animals after an orca whale killed another trainer during a live show as a result of improper care tactics. Additionally, reports found that during the pandemic, the Neumünster Zoo in Germany discussed a last resort of feeding their own animals to others as a means to recoup lost revenue. Instead of being seen as living mammals, these animals are perceived as disposable when not of proper use to the institution.

Zoos claim to protect animals, yet their greatest threat remains those who forced them into captivity — humans. If we truly care about wildlife, the solution isn’t more cages. The international community must create stronger anti-poaching laws, establish harsher penalties for trafficking and expand protected land where animals can live undisturbed. It means choosing national parks over expanding conglomerates like SeaWorld. If animals still need protection from humans, then how far have we really come since the 1870s? You can add decorations to a cage, but it’s still a cage at the end of the day.

If we recall the isolating days of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of us might remember our most vulnerable moments, as we roamed our pens anxious to leave our forced environment before we fell victim to another spreading virus: cabin fever. As a society, we were desperate to break out of our homes and rejoin our social lives. And when the guardrails were lifted, what did we do? We once again crowded our familiar spaces, going to concerts, parks and swimming pools. We should offer the same opportunity to our furry and reptile friends.

These animals are not props for our amusement. If we truly care about them, we have to stop normalizing cages disguised as protection and finally do what’s right: abandon zoos altogether.

WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion section are solely the views of the writer.

Contact Nikolai Kovach at [email protected].