One cannot force a living creature to live in a place where it does not belong. This does not only apply to people, but also to every little thing that exists. One cannot put tropical plants in an extremely cold place. Likewise, you cannot have a fish taken out of water. Human beings who are used to the dry deserts would not be able to survive in rainforests. This assumed law in nature is applied to most creatures in the animal kingdom. Wild animals should live in their natural habitats, not within a cramped space enclosed in walls and cages.
There are reasons people should know about wild animals belonging in their natural habitat. Although it may seem to a lot of people that belonging to the zoo can be good for these animals, that is not always the case. It can raise the awareness of these people about these animals. Their presence within closer contact with these people can truly be inspiring and life-changing.
We must realize that these animals simply do not belong behind closed doors. Keeping an animal from their rightful habitats can repress their animal instincts after a point of time. They tend to become unpredictable. Cages can destroy the spirit of these animals. They might lose the essence of being called ‘wild animals.’ They can either turn against those who took care of him or act on instinct no matter how much was taught to him by trainers.
The animal may be easily taken away from the wild, but the wild cannot ever be taken away from the animal. That is his nature, and it would take years and years of evolution to change that fact.
Animals are just like humans, they eat, sleep and drink like us. They can run, walk and swim like us. They speak a certain language and they all have male and female genders. So why it is that factory farms & circuses have to keep these animals, which are just like us in nearly every single way, in cages? How would you feel being stuck in a small, cramped and uncomfortable cage with little food and water and no one to play with? I’m pretty sure you and I wouldn’t like that.
Animals have feelings and emotions just like us; just because they don’t have a voice to speak does mean we should take away their rights as living creatures. It would be much more pleasurable to see the animal in its natural habitat, living its life being happy in the wild as opposed to a small cramped, overcrowded cage with depressed creatures. Some animals have died just from the conditions that their cages have been kept in. Do factory farmers and circuses like seeing animals suffer in these conditions? You would not even think of locking human in cages but yet just down the road at your local zoo or circuses, helpless animals are being kept in that claustrophobic cage so us human beings can have the privilege to see those animals. If we wouldn't do it to other humans, why is it right to do it to animals? Why?
To put a wild animal within captivity also destroys the balance of predator and prey in the environment. There are reasons behind these animals being called wild. They are the predators who lurk in shadows and within the tall grasses. They put a balance to the growth of prey. They feast on these animals for as long as history can talk about them. To enclose them within a space far from their natural homes, these preys can one day outnumber these predators, and perhaps become the aggressive animals in the cycle of life in the future. Wild animals seem to be domesticated, and prey becomes the predator which ruins the natural cycle.
The balance is not only altered but placed in opposite directions that do not make sense. A predator running away from his prey does not display balance. It is simply absurd. Furthermore, as the aforementioned source said, the wild animal may not be able to adapt well to their new homes. This becomes a problem in balance because the aggressor can become prey to science, technology, and man.
In conclusion, wild animals only belong in the wild. When enclosed in a cage, wild animals become unpredictable as their instincts become repressed. Their spirit may be torn as they may lose the meaning of being wild animals.
The most important effect of all is that when the animal is taken from the wild, the wild is not a wild at all. It is rendered to be a place where prey no longer becomes the prey as they are able to roam freely without fear.
Wild animals do not belong in a home or a zoo. They do not need any human beings to feed them or to clean them. They have existed in the wild without human supervision for so many years, and they will continue to survive all endeavours without one at this point as well.
I personally believe it is wrong to keep helpless animals in cages for most or all of their lives and they should be released into the wild where they truly belong.