Elephants in Captivity

http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/get-elephants-out-of-zoos.aspx

Obesity, arthritis, foot infections, reproductive problems, psychological disorders, early morality, low fertility, and high rate of stillbirths, difficulty giving birth and raising young, wide variety of abnormal behaviors, such as: swaying back and forth, killing their infants, hyper-aggression towards other elephants; these are all health issues of elephants caused by them being in captivity. Either a zoo or circus is the most common. In the wild these animals travel up to 30 miles a day! In captivity they have the same 20 by 20 foot area to walk around and that’s if they’re not chained or inside for the night or because of the weather, such as, winter.  In the article I linked above, they say, “No amount of expansion at a zoo will give elephants what is truly necessary for their physical and psychological well-being.” (PETA, 1) That quote is absolutely true, but yet it is still legal for zoos and circuses to keep these animals in captivity and it’s been happening for over 200 years. In fact, I’m going to San Diego, California in a week for spring break and The San Diego Zoo is on our list of things to do. I feel guilty paying money to in a way, support captive animals but I’m going to get video of the elephants for this project.  People, including myself have grown up going to the zoo or circus but very well have not asked themselves what the well-being of the animals are; they definitely do not belong there and frankly I think that the zoos and circuses should be banned. IF anything, I would probably support a natural habitat tour service to see the animals, but in their home, where they belong.

Elephants and Their Environment

 

 

                   "About Elephants." About Elephants. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2013
                 Link: http://elephant.elehost.com/About_Elephants/about_elephants.htm

Elephants, in my opinion are a very interesting creature! They are these huge mammals that walk the earth and before doing some research on them, I didn’t know a lot of things I wish I did. For one, elephants eat enormous amount of food every day but their digestive system only takes in 40 percent of it; which means that the other 60 percent that comes out as feces is undigested. And the reason they keep eating and eating is because their food goes through their digestive system so fast that they don’t get all the nutrients unless they keep consuming; this is called hindgut fermentation.

            Elephants are also a lot like humans, believe it or not. They are one of the most expressive mammals other than humans. They show joy, anger, love, compassion and grief, and are capable of complex thoughts and deep feeling. When an elephant dies whether it is a family member, still born baby or other elephants, they can grieve their death. They can live up to 70 years as well, much longer than any household pet. Another thing is that elephants go through similar health problems that humans go through; such as, menopause, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, etc. They can also adapt to many different environments which explains why they live so long in captivity. I believe they should be in their natural environment because of how much an average elephant travel every day and how much interaction they need because of how social they are as animals.