Stop Animal Confinement// Reimagine Zoos// Freedom For All

Imagine if we were trapped behind steel bars. 
Imagine if our hearts were filled with sorrow and loneliness.
Imagine if others saw us as wallpaper for entertainment.
Imagine if others found pleasure in viewing our misery.
Imagine if we lived like this forever and always.
Imagine if we were the animals living in the zoos. 

Everyone in the world now knows exactly the feeling of being in a ‘Covid induced lockdown’ – frustration, anxiousness, loneliness, basically a feeling of just outright mental and physical imprisonment, which is just wrong for human beings, right? 

This is the exact emotion that animals in a zoo go through, except not for a few weeks but a lifetime; except not to save humanity from the invisible virus enemy but for the mere pleasure of human beings. This lockdown has given us the opportunity to mildly experience, maybe even feel empathy towards the hardships animals in zoos go through.

While we may justify zoos as a way for kids or adults to learn about our natural environment, the bitter truth is that the artificial habitat is just downright cruel. Long term confinement not only restricts the animals’ natural movement, but also causes neurotic behavior such as self harm, pacing in circles, not eating food and repeatedly swaying side to side. 

We strongly believe that Zoos – where people find pleasure by mostly walking around, eating food, treating these suffering animals as an art gallery – are not required. In today’s high tech world experiencing wildlife at close quarters can be easily met through programs such as virtual zoos and safaris. 

We petition all World Leaders and Animal Rights Organizations, to do the following:

Publicly announce 

1. No new zoos to be opened in the future.
2. No new animals to be inducted in any existing zoo. 
3. Close down zoos that have very low footfall.
4. Design a Phase-out plan for existing zoos over the next few years.

Please Sign this petition if you too would like to end this misery for animals. 

Thanks

Petitioners- Nikita and Mihir Dhawan (Youth FOR Animals)

Co Petitioner- Nandika Karunakara