Zoos need to evolve: Second Look

Letter to the editor:

A crisis for any business also presents an opportunity. The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden has an opportunity here to make things better.

The American zoo as we know it — like the American circus — has not kept pace with what we, as educated Americans, now believe about our ethical obligation to treat animals well.

The Cincinnati Zoo has nearly 2,000 animals on 74 acres. For the simplicity of math, let's assume that half of that land is used for people (sidewalks, bathrooms, concessions, parking, etc.) and half of it is used for animals, leaving about 37 acres for those roughly 2,000 animals. I think we can all agree that's not enough space.

So why doesn't the Cincinnati Zoo take this publicity nightmare and turn it into a publicity boon? It couldbecome the first major zoo in America to reject the idea that large animals should be kept in a small inner-city. The entire enterprise could be relocated to a much larger, more animal-friendly preserve/safari outside city limits, possibly called something like "The Harambe Memorial Animal Habitat."

I grew up going to the Great Adventure safari in New Jersey, where they have 350 acres and about 1,200 animals. It's not as big as I would make it, but it's still a massive improvement over the inner-city zoos that so many Americans visit every year. I've been to both the Great Adventure safari and Cincinnati Zoo (before I quit visiting zoos entirely), and I can attest that the former is a much more rewarding and organic experience.

Why don't we turn this tragedy into something great, a reconfiguring of the American zoo as we know it?

Molly McCaffrey; Bowling Green, Ky.