Animal abuse in the entertainment business

Cecille Cabrera
Mr. Davison
American Literature H
8 May 2011
Why Animals should be banned from the Entertainment Business
In the entertainment business, animal abuse seems to be very common. This is because animals used for entertainment attract all types of people, therefore contributing to these businesses and creating a cycle of economic support for them. Animals in the entertainmentbusiness are used in order to gain profit, and in this process the animals are commonly neglected and abused. This leads them to have all sorts of problems. Specifically, zoos claim to provide a safe environment for these animals. Millions of people visit zoos each year, and contribute to this process. A positive effect zoos might have is that they can protect an animal in times of extinction. Insociety, the role zoos claim to have is education, and protection of animals. The problem with this is that animals are not always protected from extinction in zoos. In 2003 The Wall Street Journal reported that, “nearly half of the country’s zoos are facing cutbacks this year, attendance, meanwhile, is down about 3% nationwide. Precious funds that should be used to provide more humaneconditions for animals are often squandered on cosmetic improvements such as landscaping, refreshment stands, and gift shops in order to draw visitors.” (Barnes 2003) Because zoos are losing money, they focus on attracting the costumer rather than giving the animal quality of life. Also, zoos should not be responsible for keeping animals out of extinction. Animal rights should alone protect animalsfrom any dangers humans might cause in their lives. Apart from their role of protecting animals, zoos also claim to promote education. In reality, zoos do not help a great deal with education, because the truth is, the environment being shown to people is that of an animal in captivity, not able to freely choose a mate, hunt, or just have the limitless space they have in the wild, to roam around.Awareness should be spread, claiming the real truths of the treatment of animals in these places, and the effects it has on them. No matter how similar an animal’s habitat in captivity might be to its natural one, it will never compare to it. The use of animals in the entertainment business should be banned, specifically in zoos, where animals are confined to small areas and are routinelyabused, causing them to become mentally unstable, and sometimes even suffer a decrease in their lifespan.
Living conditions for animals in zoos are often minimal and do not come close to their environments in nature. “Freedom is a precious concept, and wild animals suffer physically and mentally from the lack of freedom captivity imposes.” (McKenna Honored) In zoos, animals are kept in small, barrenenclosures. Some zoos try to give the best artificial environments, but they do not come close to the space, diversity, and freedom that nature gives animals. Animals are intelligent and have needs just like humans do. “Zoos, which sentence intelligent, social animals to live in cages for our fleeting distraction and amusement, aren’t much better. Extremely bored, depressed, and deprived ofeverything that is natural and important to them; many animals literally lose their minds – a condition called Zoochosis.” (Freeman / http://www.peta.org/issues/Animals-In-Entertainment/default.aspx) When animals are deprived of their natural habitats they suffer the effects. Animals are not meant to be caged and shown for amusement. Not only do animals tend to acquire mental instability in thesefacilities, they can also suffer from health issues if they are not given the proper attention. Some zoos even resort to giving animals mood-altering drugs in order to alleviate themselves from the public’s complaints. “Zoochosis is so rampant that some zoos even resort to administrating mood-altering drugs such as Prozac to address the public’s complaints about abnormal behaviors.” (Freeman /...