What is more important: displaying dangerous animals in cages or keeping people safe?

Question

This is in response to the recent tiger tragedy. I'm not some animal rights activist. I just think zoos are ridiculously displaying these dangerous animals at the cost of human lives.

I also do not think space exploration (after the two major tragedies especially) is important, so what do I know?

Answer 1

Space exploration is an incredible waste of the country's money....we have too many basic needs that we aren't meeting for our citizens that are much more important. I also think zoos are cruel and trust me I hate anyone involved in PETA...they are literally psychotic....or super animal activists. I just think there is something sick and wrong about pinning up creatures that are intended to run wild, just so our kids can poke and prod and stare and people can make money off admission. Much like the circus. Don't get me started on the circus...

Answer 2

Hmm.. I understand about the Zoo and all, but some of the animals have it alot nicer than the wild.. and I know about the tragedy, but it doesn't happen very often either... I wish though, that the Cincinnattii zoo would have better conditions for their animals though, I've seen so many just pacing and runnning around the cage over and over, they're litterally stir crazy...

And space exploration is something that unfortunately has had a few tragedies too, but without the brave people who know what they're getting into, we won't even know what's inour universe....

More cars kill MORE people, yet we all use them, and what about the war in Iraq?

Answer 3

In the history of the U.S. manned space program there have been 17 fatalities directly related to space travel. I do not count accidents that could have happened anywhere, such as aircraft crashes and industrial mishaps. 14 of these were in two space shuttle accidents and 3 died in the Apollo launch pad fire.

We know the Russians have experienced some fatalities, at least 3 they confirmed and quite likely many more. Now, compared to other explorations, this is not that high a number. In most sea voyages in the 16th and 17th centuries accidents and illness claimed many lives. Mankind, anxious to continue exploring, searched for ways to prevent or cure these.

How many lives have been lost in the development of aircraft? I don't know the number, but it is well into the hundreds.

Yet would you deny that these programs have been worthwhile? Would you deny that mankind has benefited from human ambitions to push the envelope and to explore the horizon and beyond? The space program has benefited aircraft development, medicine, geography, navigation, metallurgy and chemistry to name just a few disciplines.

So I think space exploration is important. I think we need to find ways to do it more safely and economically, and that we now have the knowledge to do that.

About the displaying of dangerous animals--I think there are benefits, but great care must be given to the safety of those seeing the displays. We should also respect these animals--I think as God's creatures, but also as creatures deserving some care and protection.

Some, not all, zoos don't handle this as well as they could, and many of the public don't properly appreciate the wild animals. I don't think this is a justification for closing zoos. I do think there are many ways we could do it better, however, and I hope this will be the lesson of the most recent zoo tragedy;

Men and women climb mountains, and some die. Some swim the seas, and some die. Life is full of risks. Part of the success of humankind is learning how to manage the risks and you can't learn that without taking them.

Answer 4

It seems that you may think to know a lot but actually that may just about be next to nothing,or may be a little more.Accidents happen and just because of them,we can't stop living,learning,exploring and discovering.Zoos play important role in education and studies of animal behavior.Thanks to Zoos that some of the about to be extinct species have been saved through in house breeding.Same applies to space exploration and in the times to come,space shall be the only alternative to humans for energy ,communications and what not.Hope you shall revise your views on the subject.

Answer 5

I don't advocate pulling an animal out of it's natural environment to place it in a cage at all...especially when it's to line the pockets of a zookeeper. They belong where they're familiar and where they've grown up. I could understand if they were orphaned or abandoned and returned, but caging an animal is extremely cruel. Wild animals aren't around people for a reason...they're WILD!