Another vote for that being the worst-informed selection of multiple-choice answers ever. I believe what many zoos *actually* do is use hormonal contraceptives - though maybe they know more than I give them credit for and that doesn't work in lions. You don't want to actually sterilize because pretty much all endangered/threatened zoo animals are part of "species survival plan" breeding programs and you want to keep the genetic diversity high in the captive population. But yeah... Not breeding them in the first place seems like an obvious answer, or (gasp!) aborting the litter before she gives birth if you have an "accident".
It is... Because her concern is for animal *welfare*, which has very little to do with animal *rights*. I firmly believe that animal welfare is a very "utilitarian" concept - in that healthier, happier animals generally lead to better outcomes for humanity as well.
OK so thanks for the lesson in how to philosophize correctly and all. BUT... the difference between rights and welfare is so ingrained into veterinary culture as to be on pretty much every list of potential interview questions I've ever seen, right next to "what would you do if a client wanted you to euthanize their healthy animal." You're expected to know the difference, and that there *is* a difference. I'm not just quibbling on some details of their definitions, here. I mean, OK, they only had 4 categories so you've got to do some lumping. But I really think an informed, responsible partitioning of veterinary ethical approaches would not categorize all support for animal welfare issues as "animal rights" if *only* because of the political implications of using that strong a buzzword.
