附外刊原文本：
Zoos Should Be Banned
What do you think of when you hear the word “zoo?” Do you picture a nice habitat or a spacious enclosure? Perhaps you think a zoo is a vacation for animals before they are returned to the wild? These ideas couldn't be further from the truth. Many animals who live in zoos never return to the wild. Zoos are ultimately harmful to animals for three main reasons. First, zoos breed animals inhumanely. Second, they do not effectively help animals get back into the wild. Third, they do not provide enough resources for the animals in their care. For these reasons, zoos should be shut down and banned, or stopped altogether.
Zoos use inhumane methods to create a supply of zoo animals. They breed captive animals. Most zoo animals are bred inside zoos. Although their ancestry traces back to a wild animal, many are raised without a glimpse of their original homes. When zoos have too many animals, they simply kill the “extra” animals.
An example of an unnecessary killing happened in 2014 at the Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark. That year, a giraffe named Marius was shot. Marius was raised as a baby in the zoo and was loved by the public. Still, despite a public outcry, he was killed. The zoo's staff shot this giraffe because they didn't think he would be useful for breeding another generation of giraffes. They had other male giraffes they could use for breeding instead.
Also, baby animals attract more visitors than older animals. Killing an adult animal opens up space and resources to bring in a younger animal that can draw bigger crowds and more money. The real reason Marius was killed was that profits went down as he grew up. People were more interested in him when he was a baby than when he became an adult.
Zoos are a money-making scheme. According to the environmental online news website One Green Planet, increasing zoo ticket prices does not benefit animals, in the zoos or in the wild. The extra income goes toward building attractions that are meant to draw in greater crowds. The money is rarely used to improve the animals' living spaces or well-being.
Similarly, some zoos claim that they are involved with wild animal rehabilitation, but often this is not true. Rehabilitation is the process of returning an animal to its original habitat. A report by National Geographic, published in 2003, found that most zoos don't have any contact with reintroduction programs. Also, there have been 145 known efforts worldwide to raise endangered animals in captivity in the last century. Only 16 of those efforts have been successful. Hardly any of these efforts raised animals that survived when they were released from captivity. Zoos do breed animals, but not to repopulate the wild. They breed animals to produce cute baby animals that will attract visitors.
According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a nonprofit group that fights for animal rights, only 18 percent of animals in United States zoos are actually endangered. Zoos spend tons of money on building enclosures for these animals. Yet, they do almost nothing to restore habitats or stop poaching in wild environments.
Likewise, the claim that zoos help educate the public about wildlife protection is not true. In January 2014, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) conducted a survey of people who had recently visited a zoo. The survey found that less than 10 percent of visitors left the zoo with a greater understanding of biodiversity. Biodiversity measures how diverse the biology of a place is based on the number of different animal and plant species that live in a space. An even smaller percentage of visitors — fewer than 5 percent — said they would support conservation by supporting zoos or by other means.
Finally, zoos simply don't have enough resources to properly house the creatures they own. Natural, wild habitats cannot be recreated in spaces where animals are held captive. According to the opinion article “All the Reasons Why Zoos Should Be Banned,” published by Vice in 2015, polar bears in captivity have up to 18,000 times less space in zoos than they do in the wild. Animals cannot live full, healthy lives in captivity. Seventy-five percent of elephants kept in zoos are overweight. Forty percent of lion cubs pass away before their full life span. This data supports the argument that zoos do not have the resources to support animals' well-being, health and populations. The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has reported that around 3,000 to 5,000 animals are killed each year in zoos in Europe. Many more animals show signs of zoochosis. This is a psychological disorder observed in zoo animals that leads to pacing, bar biting and other obsessive behaviors.
Zoos should make an effort to reintroduce the animals into natural habitats where they can thrive on their own. Zoos inhumanely source and breed animals. They do little to improve wildlife populations or to help the public understand their impact on wildlife. Also, they cannot provide the required resources to support animals' lives. Zoos should reintroduce their animals into sanctuaries and, when it is possible, into the wild. This will have the added benefit of relieving zoos of the burden of keeping these animals alive. Isn't that a win-win, for both zoo animals and humans?
附改编后的外刊文本：
Zoos Should Be Banned
What do you think of when you hear the word “zoo?” Do you picture a nice habitat or a spacious enclosure （圈养用地）? Perhaps you think a zoo is a vacation for animals before they are returned to the wild? These ideas couldn't be further from the truth. Many animals who live in zoos never return to the wild. Zoos are ultimately harmful to animals for three main reasons. First, zoos breed animals inhumanely. Second, they do not effectively help animals get back into the wild. Third, they do not provide enough resources for the animals in their care. For these reasons, zoos should be shut down and banned, or stopped altogether.
Zoos use inhumane methods to create a supply of zoo animals. They breed captive （圈养的） animals. Most zoo animals are bred inside zoos. Although their ancestry traces back to a wild animal, many are raised without a glimpse of their original homes. When zoos have too many animals, they simply kill the “extra” animals.
An example of an unnecessary killing happened in 2014 at the Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark. That year, a giraffe named Marius was shot because as an adult, Marius could not attract as many visitors as when he was young. Killing an adult animal opens up space and resources to bring in a younger animal that can draw bigger crowds and more money.
Some zoos claim that they are involved with wild animal reintroduction, the process of returning an animal to its original habitat, but often this is not true. A report by National Geographic, published in 2003, found that most zoos don't have any contact with reintroduction programs. Also, there have been 145 known efforts worldwide to raise endangered animals in captivity in the last century. Only 16 of those efforts have been successful. Hardly any of these efforts raised animals that survived when they were released from captivity. Zoos do breed animals, but not to repopulate the wild. They breed animals to produce cute baby animals that will attract visitors.
Likewise, the claim that zoos help educate the public about wildlife protection is not true. In January 2014, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) conducted a survey of people who had recently visited a zoo. The survey found that less than 10 percent of visitors left the zoo with a greater understanding of biodiversity （生物多样性）. Fewer than 5 percent said they would support conservation by supporting zoos or by other means.
Finally, zoos simply don't have enough resources to properly house the creatures they own. According to the opinion article “All the Reasons Why Zoos Should Be Banned,” published by Vice in 2015, polar bears in captivity have up to 18,000 times less space in zoos than they do in the wild. Seventy-five percent of elephants kept in zoos are overweight. Forty percent of lion cubs pass away prematurely.
Zoos should make an effort to reintroduce the animals into natural habitats. This will have the added benefit of relieving zoos of the burden of keeping these animals alive. Isn't that a win-win, for both zoo animals and humans?
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