Are zoos ethical? There is not one right answer to this challenging question. Readers discover the different arguments that can be made in favor of and against zoos. These different points of view are presented with relevant facts to support them, encouraging readers to understand the different sides of the debate surrounding zoos. Clear main text, eye-catching fact boxes, and detailed graphic organizers help readers make their own informed opinion. Full-color photographs are included to enhance a reading experience that sharpens essential critical thinking skills and encourages readers to approach controversial topics with an open mind.

Written with the cooperation of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the Wildlife Conservation Society, "Zoo Book" offers the first comprehensive look at the complex phenomenon that is the modern zoo. Lavishly illustrated with stunning color photos by top wildlife photographers, "Zoo Book" takes a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the "natural habitat" zoos of today.

First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Your baby will love the wild animals in this touch-and-feel

Depicts the variety of animals that live in a zoo.

Well-run modern zoos and aquariums do important research and conservation work and teach visitors about the challenges of animals in the wild and the people striving to save them. They help visitors to consider their impact and think about how they can make a difference. Yet for many there is a sense of disquiet and a lingering question remains – can modern zoos be ethically justified? Zoo Ethics examines the workings of modern zoos and considers the core ethical challenges that face those who choose to hold and display animals in zoos, aquariums or sanctuaries. Using recognised ethical frameworks and case studies of ‘wicked problems’, this book explores the value of animal life and the impacts of modern zoos, including the costs to animals in terms of welfare and the loss of liberty. It also considers the positive welfare and health outcomes of many animals held in zoos, the increased attention and protection for their species in the wild, and the enjoyment and education of the people who visit zoos. A thoughtfully researched work written in a highly readable style, Zoo Ethics will empower students of animal ethics and veterinary sciences, zoo and aquarium professionals and interested zoo visitors to have an informed view of the challenges of compassionate conservation and to develop their own defendable, ethical position.

This book takes a unique stance on a controversial topic: zoos. Zoos have their ardent supporters and their vocal detractors. And while we all have opinions on what zoos do, few people consider how they do it. Irus Braverman draws on more than seventy interviews conducted with zoo managers and administrators, as well as animal activists, to offer a glimpse into the otherwise unknown complexities of zooland. Zooland begins and ends with the story of Timmy, the oldest male gorilla in North America, to illustrate the dramatic transformations of zoos since the 1970s. Over these decades, modern zoos have transformed themselves from places created largely for entertainment to globally connected institutions that emphasize care through conservation and education. Zoos naturalize their spaces, classify their animals, and produce spectacular experiences for their human visitors. Zoos name, register, track, and allocate their animals in global databases. Zoos both abide by and create laws and industry standards that govern their captive animals. Finally, zoos intensely govern the reproduction of captive animals, carefully calculating the life and death of these animals, deciding which of them will be sustained and which will expire. Zooland takes readers behind the exhibits into the world of zoo animals and their caretakers. And in so doing, it turns its gaze back on us to make surprising interconnections between our understandings of the human and the nonhuman.