Some researchers have noted that pacing and similar stereotypies may be a result of permanent aberrations in the brain “caused by abnormalities in captive environments.” Others describe it as a direct and ongoing reaction to the captive environment.
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Considering the questionable management practices and the poor or absent conservation and educational benefits, even in zoos considered to provide the best conditions, confining a wild animal to a lifetime of captivity in a zoo is, in our view, clearly unethical.
Some animals that are in zoos are taken from their families and natural homes. Most of the time it's the babies that are taken to zoos because people enjoy seeing baby animals more than adults. These babies then have to grow up without their parents to show them their habits as they are growing up.
What we do know so far is that evidence suggests wild animals can be as happy in captivity as they are in nature, assuming they are treated well. Confinement alone doesn't mean an animal is automatically worse off.
MYTH 4: Animals in Zoos are happy. Animals in captivity across the globe have been documented displaying signs of anxiety and depression. In fact, psychological distress in zoo animals is so common that it has its own name: Zoochosis.
Some animals in zoos are kept in enclosures far too small for them, while others are forced to perform degrading tricks. Even in the best zoos, under the best conditions, a lifetime of captivity is no life at all for wild animals.
So what do zoos spend money on if not the animals? Staff salaries, animal maintenance and facilities costs are the obvious expenses, but there are others.
Zoos do a lot for conservation. There are dedicated species survival programs which have helped species come out from the brink of extinction, good examples of that being the black-footed ferrets, the red wolves, the Przewalski's wild horse, and the California condors.