Building Ethical Arks
The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) published a revision of its benchmark World Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Strategy in 2005. The document included a new section on “Ethics and Animal Welfare.” Although ethics permeates all dimensions of
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Building Ethical Arks
Zoos have the marvelous potential to develop a concerned, aware, energized, enthusiastic, caring, and sympathetic citizenry. Zoos can encourage gentleness toward all other animals and compassion for the well-being of wild places . . . To help save all wildlife, to work toward a healthier planet, to encourage a more sensitive populace; these are the goals for the new zoos. David Hancocks
The aspirations enumerated by our colleague David Hancocks reveal the awesome potential of the world’s best zoos and aquariums. Similar words and phrases can be found in the mission statements of a growing number of accredited institutions. One eloquent and visionary statement of purpose broke new ground when it was issued in 1980 by leaders at the Minnesota Zoo: “Strengthening the bond between people and the living earth”. Recently, the zoo modified its mission statement to read: “Connecting people, animals, and the natural world”. In San Francisco, the zoo lives by the motto: “Connect, care, conserve”. Such elegant phraseology frames each and every institutional commitment to ethical principles, core values, and superior operating standards and practices. On the ethical ark, the words matter. In a comprehensive review of ethics in the zoo profession, Kreger and Hutchins (2010) took the position that ethics is about “what is right and what is wrong. Further, they argued, rather than focusing on what is, as scientists do, ethicists are concerned with what ought to be (White 1981). The mere fact that we have chosen to capture exotic fauna and deposit them in our zoos is an example of an “ethical paradox” as Conway (1995) explained it: Zoos seek to inspire public interest in wild creatures and nature, to provide ecological education, and to help save wild species from extinction, but in doing so they confine wild animals away from nature and manage their lives. (p. 2)
Because so many animals live in world zoos (more than 750,000 are estimated to reside in the world’s accredited zoos), it is essential that we consider their welfare and
T.L. Maple and B.M. Perdue, Zoo Animal Welfare, Animal Welfare, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-35955-2_1, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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1 Building Ethical Arks
understand our ethical obligation to keep them healthy and well. Both government and private enterprise have recognized the growing importance of ethical operating principles, ethical decision-making, and ethical commitments. Specialized courses in ethics are now among the most important electives in our universities and graduate schools of business, law, and public policy. Non-profit organizations are particularly concerned about ethics given their reliance on funding from local and national foundations, corporations, and individuals.
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Fall and Rise of the Phoenix
The collapse of Atlanta’s city zoo in 1984 was a scandal that embarrassed government officials and reverberated throughout the nation. In an article in Parade Magazine, the Humane Society of the United States named the Atlanta Zoo as one of Ame
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