Government funded zoos are more in it for the profit then any other zoo. They are funded as an INVESTMENT. They hope that the revenue generated through tourist attraction will eventually outweigh the investment. They are not funded to save the animals. If someone was not expecting there to be a profit, there would be no zoos. If they were in it to save endangered species there would be no common species.
I worked at a rescue for a while ( I am not going to say which one) but we had over 200 residents that could not be released back into the wild. Of these residents a enormous amount of the animals came from zoos. The people running the place even said it was sad because there was no paper work or anything on them- the zoos just didn't want them and dropped them off.
Zoos are in it for the money. The animals and the endangered breeding are second.
oh, yes, you KNOW they were from Zoos, but you KNOW that despite there being no paperwork and they were dropped off. Kind of like I KNOW you KNOW what your talking about because you typed it on a forum. Animals is zoos are actually tracked through SSPs. If a zoo dumped one at a park, they would still have to report what happened to that animal to the tracking systems. Any zoo that had a number of animals disappear or die would not be able to exchange animals with other zoos (which is pretty important for a variety of reasons, including generating public interest and breeding.) National zoo went under this scrutiny about a decade ago when several animals (not big ticket animals either) died in a relatively short period of time.
Zoo's just don't generate the money you apparently think they do. However, since you are very interested in proving your point, perhaps you should take the time to look over the books of several zoos, most are public record. I'd like to see the CPA analysis. Zoos are really bad investments.
I do agree that part of the reason government's subsidize them is to use them as an attraction, however, how many people really plan an entire trip to a city for the sole purpose of going to a zoo? It's not that common, and the majority of the revenue for zoos (80+% last time I had reason to look it up) come from a 45 mile radius. The lack of interest in zoos as tourist attractions is part of the reason many local and regional zoos are closing down.
I never said their emphasis was solely on conservation breeding. I believe it is generally a 3 pronged approach (but what would I know, I mean, I only sit through the seminars where we discuss all this stuff for days on end) of education-conservation/research-public use. Many zoos have a lot of other areas to worry about like business associations, consultation, community development programs, etc.
There are a lot of reasons for having common species. We moved common species in to fill the spaces of animals on loan. We also felt that many common species are poorly understood and that we protect species by inspiring protection starting at a local level. Black rat snakes are a great example of this; they do a lot of good, even help slow disease progression, but in many areas (particularly areas with venemous snakes) they are killed without question. We have the black snakes in the zoo so that we can educate folks about why these snakes are valuable and generate discussions about why venemous snakes are less dangerous if they are left alone since most bites occur when someone is trying to kill them (and I'd bite too if someone was trying to kill me.)
We also took animals from wildlife rehab centers that were non-releasable. An animal that can't go back into the wild and be productive is a burden on rehab centers and if it can't generate young, it is a burden on the environment and can actually damage reproduction programs for protected wildlife. Every bird of prey we had was non-releasable. 95% of our animals were captive born, and 45% were in breeding programs. We had an aged population, so nearly a third of ours were too old for reproduction. We also worked with researchers in the field and in medicine. We weren't even one of the top zoos, which do some really amazing things.
Much of what we know about saving animals in the field (including the progression of pathogenic distemper in big cats) came from studies in zoos. And I'd much rather a zoo be doing this (where the public can have a definitive impact) than a private breeder. Zoos aren't perfect...then again, neither are vets or vet students or pre-vet students or vegetarians or vegans. We all have room to improve, but I can flat out say without any hesitation that you are wrong on zoos being profit centers. I wish they were, since that is an area I would actually like to work in, but the pay is too low.
