Zoos not the best place for wild animals

This letter responds to the article "Lions safer in zoos than in the wild."

In the wild, about 600 lions die per year for sport. However, between 3,000 and 5,000 animals die in zoos per year.

These animals are kept locked in cages for the entertainment of us humans and watched through the glass. Never once have we considered how these poor animals felt.

Being in the zoo can actually be quite dangerous for the animals. Children of all ages run around in the park with toys and food, the parents look away for just one second, and there it goes. The child accidentally threw something into the exhibit and an animal gets to it, and sadly, dies.

In 2005 at the St. Louis Zoo, a polar bear by the name of Churchill died from ingesting an object that got thrown into the exhibit. Things like this can be easily prevented if animals stayed in the wild.

The animals in the zoos have never once been in their natural habitat. They start their lives and breed more animals into the zoo life, and sometimes they never fully develop because of this. When humans make careless mistakes that cost the lives of these animals, keeping them in zoos may not be the safest choice.

Sarah Shin

Des Plaines