According to the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums,
over 700 million people visit zoos each year (WAZA, 2012) and with the
growing popularity amongst tourist the debate continues whether it is
moral for animals to be kept in zoos, although the primary objective of
entertainment has changed to include research, education and
conservation.
An area to be looked into is whether zoos are defensible as an ecotourism setting. Latest research by David A. Fennell, Contesting the zoo as a setting for ecotourism, and the design of a first principle published in Journal of Ecotourism, investigates this topic and uses research on three main concerns: conservation – education; welfare; and captivity.
Although
we could argue that the animal welfare is successful with factors such
as freedom from hunger, thirst, pain etc, with the failure in animal
breading and captivity programmes are zoos achieving ecotourism
objectives?
David’s
research concludes that if we put the welfare of animals over humans’
in ecotourism then this will make the step towards a more ethical
ecotourism industry.
