FMHS APES Third Spring 2020: Should Private Zoos be Illegal?

Should Private Zoos be Illegal?

By:Jonathan Suni

With the popularity of Tiger King, the documentary on Netflix, so high I decided to write this blog to see if Carole Baskin is truly the hero of the story. While there are local laws, ordinances, and regulations varying state to state, Carole Baskin wanted private zoos completely banned. Of course there will always be organizations that hate the idea of roadside zoos like PETA and of course Baskin. But there are still private zoos up and running all throughout our nation, so obviously something is stopping the federal government from just shutting them all down.

Just to name a few roadside zoos, there is the infamous G.W. Zoo, Waccatee Zoological Farm, Cherokee Bear Zoo and Santa’s Land, Clark’s trading Post, among hundreds of more. Being a private zoo, these zoos are subject to bad conditions because at times like winter when their revenue is almost cut off completely they get into a serious situation where they can barely feed their animals. Zoos like the Fort Worth Zoo don’t rely as heavily on their ticket sales and have outside funds coming in to help with slower seasons, unlike their private counterparts. Many of Joe Exotics tigers were sent to a sanctuary in Colorado that ran off of revenue from tourists. But now due to the Coronavirus, it had to shut down and forty known Tigers are starving.

While there is another large debate circulating around zoos, should there be zoos at all, this I believe is the more important conversation to have. At least the majority of zoos give animals sufficient food and shelter, while private zoos can create a mass grave for starving animals during economic slow periods. Tourists keep these tourist traps up and running because they get a much better experience than a public city zoo, being able to play with baby tiger cubs and going face to face with full grown tigers and lions. They pay hundreds to keep something up and running that is much worse than meets the eyes.

Will Carole Baskin get what she wants? She pushes every day at state and national offices to get rid of these private zoos that are torturing animals. She was successful in uncovering and showing the federal government what was truly going on in that zoo run by Joe Exotic, so maybe she will build her credibility and put an end to these happily disguised torture camps.