Nature and Society Relations Commons^™

An Overview Of Zoo Goals And Exhibition Principles, Randall L. Eaton

Zoos and Aquariums Collection

It is not uncommon among progressive-minded zoo professionals these days to hear disdain for the function of zoos as recreational. This attitude is understandable in that traditionally, zoos have done little but offer amusement along with parklands or picnic facilities. The progressive zoo person sets his or her goals above the old-fashioned recipe of crowding as many exotic animals as possible into an amusement-oriented menagerie to an authentic theme for exhibition intended to educate the public, offer research possibilities, and preserve and propagate species. Nevertheless, recreation remains a primary function of zoos. Most zoo visitors do not seek education in …

Injuries To Birds Of Prey Caught In Leghold Traps, Katherine Durham

Conservation Collection

173 birds of prey, including 32 Bald Eagles, have been treated for trapping injuries at the University of Minnesota Raptor Research and Rehabilitation Program since 1972. These were birds caught primarily in "open" bait /eghold sets incidental to furbearer trapping in the Minnesota region. The differential outcome of the injuries with respect to crippling or mortality is presented for large versus small raptors, toe versus leg injuries, and fracture of the leg versus soft tissue damage only.

There is only limited potential for mitigating the effects of trapping injuries to raptors because of the irreversible soft tissue damage usually associated …

The Role And Responsibility Of Zoos: An Animal Protection Viewpoint, John E. Cooper

Zoos and Aquariums Collection

The aim of this paper is to look at zoological collections from the viewpoint of the animal and, in particular, to draw attention to areas where welfare considerations should be paramount. I do not intend to cover the capture and transportation of zoo animals, although this is obviously of great importance and must be included in any overall consideration of the welfare of zoo animals. In this paper, however, I shall concentrate upon the care of the animal within the zoo environment.

Roadside Zoos Are Not Zoos

Close Up Reports

The HSUS was one of the first national animal welfare organizations to take a long, hard look at all zoos, including roadside menageries. During the last nine years, we have worked intensively, conducting zoo inspections, public education and awareness programs, and developing a working relationship with the professional zoological community as well as U.S. Government agencies charged with the welfare of animals.

Definition Of The Concept Of "Humane Treatment" In Relation To Food And Laboratory Animals, Bernard E. Rollin

Animal Welfare Collection

The very title of this talk makes a suggestion which must be forestalled, namely the idea that laboratory and food animals enjoy some exceptional moral status by virtue of the fact that we use them. In fact, it is extremely difficult to find any morally relevant grounds for distinguishing between food and laboratory animals and other animals and, far more dramatically, between animals and humans. The same conditions which require that we apply moral categories to humans rationally require that we apply them to animals as well. While it is obviously pragmatically impossible in our current sociocultural setting to expect …

Bringing Nature Into The Zoo: Inexpensive Solutions For Zoo Environments, David Hancocks

Zoos and Aquariums Collection

Animals in captivity have traditionally been kept in sterile and inappropriate environments. Typically this situation still prevails in zoos. Cages are designed only for restraint of the animals, expediency for the public, and convenient maintenance by keepers. The animals' behavioral needs are often ignored. By using nature as a norm, and by using natural materials, the spatial and temporal environment of a captive animal can be easily and greatly enriched. Several examples which have been used at Woodland Park Zoological Gardens are discussed. Their application and expansion are appropriate for most urban zoos.

Sightings Of Moose, Deer, And Bears On Roads In Northern Ontario, D. Fraser

Anthropogenics and Population Decline Collection

No abstract provided.

Homeless Cats And Dogs Are Suffering And Dying

Close Up Reports

Last year more than 13 million homeless cats and dogs were euthanized at humane societies and municipal animal shelters. As a statistic, 13 million may be meaningless. But think of it another way. Think of the 13 million as individual animals with individual personalities--each with their own beating heart, each with their own wretched story of how they found their way to the animal shelter. Each one was an individual breathing creature whose life was ended because there was no home to go to.

Special Report On Zoo Reform

Special Reports

The Humane Society of the United States has taken the lead for the past 3 1/2 years in reforming American zoos. HSUS has awakened Americans to the fact that wild animals have been caged inhumanely for many decades in the nation's zoos and that major and drastic actions are necessary to correct these problems. While HSUS has continued to insist that no wild animal should be exploited simply to create an attraction or exhibit, such is not the state of the world as it exists today. Consequently, HSUS is determined to do everything in its power to alleviate the suffering …

Special Report On The Cruelties Involved In Wild Animal Trapping

Special Reports

Great numbers of Americans who buy and wear the furs of wild animals are unaware of the enormous cruelty and suffering that goes into producing them.

These animals are caught in a steel jaw trap which holds the leg in a crushing, painful grip. So intense is the pain and terror the animals feel that they often twist or gnaw off their own legs to free themselves from their nightmarish agony. After getting free at such a cost, many of the animals later die a slow death of gangrene, or in their weakness from shock, loss of blood and infection …

Special Report On Shipping Animals By Air

Special Reports

Animals are too often treated like just another piece of baggage, no more valuable than a suitcase or a mail sack. Missed or cancelled flights are seldom more than inconveniences to human passengers, but to animals they can mean death. The Humane Society has concluded that shippers and handlers will provide humane conditions and treatment only when forced to do so.

Special Report On Trapping

Special Reports

The steel jaw trap is one of the cruelest devices invented by man. It can be hidden under grass along a well-trodden animal path, under water, or among the leaves of a tree. When triggered by an animal's weight, the heavy steel jaws spring shut over a paw or a leg with such force that bones are sometimes broken. Some leghold traps contain sharp steel teeth that pierce all the way through flesh and muscles.

Special Report On Hunting

Special Reports

The Humane Society contends that the use of amateur hunters to reduce an overabundant deer herd does not conform with the principles of sound wildlife management. The Humane Society is strongly opposed to any method of culling herds of deer that does not deliver an instant and reasonably merciful death.

Special Report On Zoos

Special Reports

In many ways, The Humane Society has become the Ralph Nader of the zoo world, spurring into action the individuals or municipalities who own zoos, the staffs who operate them, the taxpayers who are in the end responsible for their existence, and the federal officials who are now required to ensure that they meet certain standards.

Special Report On Animal Overpopulation: Breeding Surplus Dogs And Cats Causes Suffering

Special Reports

Overbreeding has created a surplus of nearly 50 million dogs and cats. These animals are unwanted and homeless. Some of them--the lucky ones--will get a quick, merciful death at humane society shelters. Most, however, haven't even the hope of being reached and protected from suffering in the 3,000 or more communities without humane societies. Instead, they roam the country--starving, thirsting, suffering from disease and injury.

This is suffering on a massive scale. Many factors contribute to it. Commercial interests like pet shops, for example, are partly to blame in suggesting there is money in breeding puppies and kittens. Veterinarians who …

Problems In Transportation Of Animals, Alice M. Wagner

Animal Welfare Collection

This afternoon we are considering the problems involved in the transportation of animals. Undoubtedly we have all had people problems as we travel by car, train and by air, and with the increase of travel things seem to be growing worse instead of better. I commuted from my home in New Jersey to Philadelphia for 18 1/2 years - a round trip of five hours - so I know plenty of things that can happen in transportation and commutation.

So it is with animals. An increasing number of animals are being shipped - shipped as pets, shipped as meat animals, …

Our Pet Population Explosion And Operation Spared, Kay Clausing

Pets Collection

All humane societies are dedicated to preventing cruelty and suffering. No society can effectively prevent cruelty unless it makes spaying compulsory for all females released for adoption and talks spaying to every owner of a female. Even if the home is a good one in every other respect, if a female is permitted to produce even one litter, the humane society is simply delaying or postponing cruelty. In fact, it is perpetuating it. When the female (which your society otherwise placed so carefully) has a litter, often its owners are not qualified to judge what constitutes a good home. In …

The War Against Surplus Breeding, Irene Castle

Puppy Mills Collection

Almost the whole humane movement is snowed under and overwhelmed by the still mounting flood of surplus cats and dogs. The surplus turns our shelters into sordid slaughterhouses. It distorts and perverts the thinking of many even of our very best people. Hundreds of our societies are kept permanently on the edge of bankruptcy by the single problem of taking in and disposing of cats and dogs which are homeless or unwanted simply because of the immense surplus of such animals.

It is so easy for all of us to throw up our hands and denounce veterinarians for the high …