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"Zoos' past is prelude - it shows how easily empathy falters when beauty and captivity collide."
This post will examine the dark history of zoos:
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In the Dark Ages, European zoos were privately owned by the elite, mainly by royalty and aristocrats.
The elite saw exotic animals as status symbols to be displayed in harsh conditions for their buddies.
There was minimal regard for their well-being.
This cruel approach persisted up to the 18th century (even after the emergence of public zoos).
Animals suffered.
These poor critters were kept in inadequate enclosures until laws changed due to public outcry via advances in zoology and animal psychology.
Humane practices primarily exist in modern zoos in the Western world.
In the late 19th century, "ethnological expositions" or human zoos were commonplace across Europe and America.
Indigenous peoples from Africa, Asia, South America, and the Pacific Islands were displayed in artificial village settings.
These caged people were forced to conform to Western stereotypes of "primitive" cultures.
These exhibitions attracted millions of viewers and continued into the early 1900s.
It reinforced racist ideologies at the time.
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George Washington, the first US president, was an enthusiastic collector of exotic animals at Mount Vernon.
Washington assembled an impressive display of animals, including an African donkey, Hungarian horses, and even America's first elephant.
The animals were sent as gifts from foreign dignitaries, and some were purchased by himself.
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Carl Hagenbeck pioneered open-moated enclosures at his Hamburg zoo in the 1870s.
He replaced visible bars with landscaped exhibits.
The innovation improved the visitor experience but still fell short of providing a good life for the animals.
It was early progress in zoo design, but the small enclosures needed to be improved for wild animals' natural behaviors.
Before the 1973 Endangered Species Act, zoos routinely treated unwanted/surplus animals as disposable commodities, selling them:
There was no regulatory oversight or ethical considerations for this practice prior to 1973.
It was a horrendous system that valued animals purely for their monetary worth—leading countless creatures deemed "useless" to suffer tragic fates.
Public zoos regularly collected exotic animals from colonized tropical regions from the 1800s to 1960s with little regard for species preservation or animal welfare—keeping them in unsuitable enclosures that led to high mortality rates.
It was not only bad for the animals but also for the ecosystems from which they were kidnapped.
Chimpanzees and orangutans were routinely dressed in human clothes and forced through cruel training methods to perform human-like behaviors for entertainment.
They were denied their natural dignity!
However, in the modern day, most of these primates are treated more ethically based on our contemporary understanding of their psychological needs.
From the 19th century onward, elephants and bears in zoos were subjected to cruel confinement.
These large animals were kept in cramped, barren enclosures with hard surfaces—preventing natural behaviors and caused physical and psychological harm.
Modern zoos have gradually shifted toward more humane, naturalistic habitats for these enormous beasts.
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