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Animal Captivity Research Paper

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Most people love zoos and attractions that involve animals. The happy and inviting atmosphere, however, hides many horrible truths. Animals in captivity are doomed to inadequate living spaces, an over dependence on humans, shorter lifespans, and even suffer from abuse and torture. Animals have feelings and keeping them captive in these environments hurt them emotionally. Animal captivity is a problem all around the world. From the killer whales in San Diego to the elephants in Thailand, animals are held captive to entertain us. As an animal activist, I strongly dislike captivity. I do not like that people force these animals to live their lives in small environments just for our amusement. I also find it heartbreaking to hear how they train some of the animals to do tricks for us. These poor animals …show more content…
The habitats that many animals in captivity live in are inadequate in size. Because of this small space, many of the animals become lazy, which results in them becoming over weight. These cramped spaces also cause stress in certain animals. For example, the tanks for the killer whales in SeaWorld are about 350 feet long and 50 feet deep. For one killer whale to swim as much as it would in the wild per day, it would have to swim about 1,210 laps around the pool. Then add up how many killer whales are in one tank. Many get very stressed and often fight each other. With this stress, their lifespan also decreases. Some animals have shorter lifespans than others in captivity. In the wild, a killer whale can live up to 30 to 50 years old on average. In captivity, the average age is 13 years old. Another example is a certain Western Lowland gorilla. They can live up to 40 to 60 years in captivity, but Harambe, a gorilla that lived in the Cincinnati zoo, was shot and killed at the age of 17. It was a result of human interference and he would still be alive today if he was in the

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