#captive animal

[snototter]

A cougar cub (Puma concolor) in the North Carolina Zoo, USA

by ucumari photography

[kidarwolf]

I wish I could post this on my photography tumblr, but I do not have the license to make money from this shot, which means it has to go only on my non-business account. This was during a visit to a private collection of animals trained for work in films and television.

[rose-in-a-fisted-glove]

Green Iguana head

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

tis the season to remember Medjed aka The Smiter, an invisible egyptian deity with laser eyes and nonbinary swagger:

rotating them gently in my mind as they do a spiffy little dance number

[platypu]

yeah facebook is terrible but sometimes you stumble across pure gold. there are dream animals i want to see in the wild and there will be posts like

ma'am that is the critically endangered regent honeyeater. There are less than 300 of them left in the wild

[milkdongcomics]

National Panda Day 2023 HEY HUMAN, SEE WHAT YOU DO!? ANIMAN - CAPTIVE PANDA Instagram:  milkdongcomics Facebook:  Milk DoNg Comics

[anne-is-confused]

hear me, o patroness of girlstrugglers

[vintagewildlife]

Dingo pups By: W. S. Berridge From: The Book of the Animal Kingdom 1910

[plushieanimals]

aurora 💛 Gavin goose

[cozylittleartblog]

The sixty billion double-dollar man.

[wholewolfsbane]

being nonhuman kinda feels like zoochosis in a way,,, like an animal raised in captivity in a non suitable enviroment who would never survive in the wild pacing around in circles for hours on end because they know it just isnt right

[snototter]

A Patagonian mara (Dolichotis patagonum) and its pup in Dierenpark Hoenderdaell, the Netherlands

by safi kok

[tsub1t]

suddenly got fixated on a loud banana looking head ass. I haven't watched a single episode of bnha. I'm going insane

my first drawing of mic is him doing the hand thing™ for some reason

[gaelmeee]

Rooftop chase

[the-bloody-sadist]

Anon comm for their OCs! 🫶

[ihazyourkitty]

Hogle Zoo is an AZA accredited facility, opening up a new area 3 acre area called "Wild Utah" to feature various native Utah species. 3 of those animals are going to be orphaned cougar cubs that were rescued and unable to survive in the wild on their own.

Note that 2 of these cubs have shortened ears and tails because of frostbite. They were rescued in Nebraska where the weather conditions were severe, and again, these cubs were unequipped to handle it on their own.

This would be a very positive story about giving orphaned cubs a second chance at a good place where they will receive all the care that they need... or so you would think.

Instead, multiple people on the comments were asserting that they were just going to prisons, one even going so far as to say that it would've been better to just let them die.

Wonderful. Nothing says "I love animals" than explicitly saying that they're better off dead than at an accredited zoo. Again, you will note that 2 of the 3 were suffering things like frostbite when they were rescued. There is nothing humane about letting animals that are within your power to help die like that.

I cannot, and will never, understand the "logic" behind this kind of mindset. Yes, baby orphaned animals die in nature all the time. No, we cannot save them all. But for those we can help... why not help them? And why is a life well cared for at an accredited zoo somehow worse for them than suffering a slow and painful death from starvation and exposure?

These animals do not have the same concepts of freedom vs. prison like we do. All they knew was that their mother is gone, and they were cold and starving.

Yes, bad or less than ideal zoos exist. Hogle Zoo is not one of them. Zoos and aquariums are not universally prisons, and if you think that, then let me just ask... what kind of prisons have you been to!? Seriously, all of the animals I've had the privilege to work with eat better than I do, and are treated vastly better than human prisoners are. How privileged must you be to think that all zoos and prisons are equivalent to one another!

Here's the reality: the zoological industry is a complex, nuanced thing that is ever improving and expanding. We're not stuck in the 1970s like you are. Stop judging animal welfare based on vibes, and stop drinking the PETA, HSUS et al. kool aid, because they're lying to you.