Amusement and Exploitation
Introduction

Animals have been taken from the wild for the amusement of humans for as long as we can remember. Whether in circuses or zoos, it is never-the-less despicable. Not all zoos are terrible and are, in fact, helpful in education and conservation of species, like the Bronx and San Diego facilities. But many zoos take animals from their natural habitats and their family groups, and force them to live in solitude to be gawked at by visitors. Almost all of the small city zoos in the country are unnatural and the animals are not properly treated and have small enclosures. These small zoos are unnecessary and do not give any actual wildlife education, and should be fazed out. These zoos are irresponsible, and animals are most likely to develop diseases and genetic problems. These zoos also have irresponsible breeding programs to attract more families, but they are left with a lot of old animals, and are sometimes forced to sell them at auctions where they are not, or cannot be, tracked or looked after, so they sometimes wind up in Canned Hunts.

Circuses

Circuses that use animals for entertainment are one of the most cruel and unnatural industries there is. Circuses take animals, wild and domesticated, and train them to do ridiculous activities such as standing of their hind feet (usually a completely unnatural stance), jumping through rings of fire, standing on balls, or anything else these people can think of. Besides from being humiliating and degrading, these animals usually live in terrible conditions, with poor health and poor living areas. It is also dangerous for these animals to be rehabilitated, because they are too used to humans, and their behavior would have become unnatural. There was a case at a big cat rehabilitation center, were a girl was killed accidentally by her favorite tiger. The tiger was trained to stand on its back legs and put its two front paws on the shoulders of his trainers and "dance" with them. Unfortunately, they did not keep good maintenance on the tiger's dew claws (on the wrist), and as the tiger came down, he cut her jugularvein, and she died. This is a tragedy primarily the fault of the circus that trained the tiger to do this unnatural behavior. People want to see animals doing these tricks because they want to be entertained. Non-animal circuses (like Cirque Du Soeil) are just as entertaining. I think it is much more spectacular to see a human doing an amazing trick that they want to do, instead of an animal who is forced to do one.

Cetacean Captivity

Dolphins and whales in captivity face a unique plight. They, unlike seals, do not breed well in captivity and when they do their young rarely survive. As a result, the people who run these dolphin and whale captivity programs have to keep going out into the wild and capture animals from their natural habitats and their family groups, which disrupts their natural order, and bring them to facilities such as Sea World, and other aquatic parks to be used in dolphin shows or interaction programs. This is extremely unnatural for dolphins, and about half of dolphins captured die from capture shock. In the wild, they only spend about 10% of their time on the surface of the water. In an enclosure however, they spend more than half there time on the surface, which commonly leads to skin disease, and in orcas; dorsal fin collapse. In fact, all male and most female orcas experience dorsal fin collapse. Dolphins are perpetually aware, and never actually fall asleep, conscious of every breath they take. Always aware, these dolphins are in small concrete tanks, where they can only swim a few lengths, and become bored and depressed extremely easily, and can develop aggressive behavior . Dolphin Interaction programs are present all around the world, and in America they can range from seawater programs in Florida, to the concrete tanks of Sea Worlds. These programs are becoming more and more popular in Asia, and many and most of their facilities are very small, dirty, and the dolphins are maltreated, and unhealthy, even by captured dolphin standards. These programs are not regulated in the US, and need to be, for the health and safety of the dolphins and the people.