Labour Minister: Zoos Must Be Banned

April 12, 2010 - PRLog -- Labour’s Charities Minister, Angela Smith, has caused huge controversy by calling for zoos to be banned. The UK currently has 400 zoos, and if Angela Smith was to have her way all the zoos would eventually be closed.

In her own words:

“It's inappropriate to keep wild animals in captivity this way. You can understand the Victorians who were amazed by what they saw when these specimens were brought back, because they couldn't travel - but now they can travel and they can see animals in amazing films and television documentaries.”

Angela Smith then went on to call for a time when there would be no more zoos in the UK:

“You can't shut down every zoo tomorrow, but you've got to set a point in the future where we don't bring in any more animals, then set another point saying this is the last zoo.”

The director of both London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo, David Field, hit back at the extraordinary comments:

“Yes, we have species like giraffes that aren’t necessarily endangered, but when people come to see the giraffe they learn about all the incredibly endangered species in the next enclosure. It has to be a balance. We would never be able to get enough people into the zoo to be able to fund all this (conservation and scientific) work if all we were able to show was the less exciting animals.”

In an ideal world there’s no doubt that there would be no requirement for zoos, but at a time when many of the world’s animals are becoming endangered zoos are a vital and invaluable source of inspiration and research without which many of the world’s endangered animals would simply become extinct.

In some instances, such as in the case of the Amur Leopard - http://www.animaladoptions.org.uk/amur-leopard - without the work of zoos the animal would be virtually extinct already.

A Labour spokesman has since come out to clarify that Angela Smith’s views are entirely her own and not that of the government’s:

“We have no plans to ban zoos. Animal welfare is of the highest importance and ministers have recently announced that they are minded to ban animals in circuses.”

You can visit http://www.animaladoptions.org.uk to find out more about the plight of many of the world’s most endangered species.

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Animal Adoptions is a site highlighting the plight of many of the world's most endangered animals, including polar bears, orangutans, tigers and leopards.