Zoos are created for profit

The argument

The claim is about what zoos are for, not merely about how well they perform. On this account zoos were created to make a profit, and every other function they claim is secondary to, and constrained by, that commercial purpose. Wild animals are the exhibit; keeping them in view of a paying public is what generates the revenue, and high ticket prices are what a captive audience makes possible. The animals are not beneficiaries of the arrangement but the means by which it earns. The behaviour of the institutions is offered as evidence of the underlying priority. Where a zoo has money to spend, the argument goes, it tends to spend it on acquiring new attractions rather than on improving conditions for the animals it already holds. That is the choice a business makes, because a new exhibit draws new visitors while better enclosures for existing animals draw none. It is not the choice a body whose primary purpose was animal welfare would make, since such a body would improve what it has before taking on more. The same ranking appears in how these organisations allocate money internally. Proponents of this position point to the head of the Philadelphia zoo receiving a large retirement package at a time when the facility itself desperately needed improvements. The significance is not the individual case but what it reveals about priorities: when funds were scarce, executive compensation was met and the animals' conditions were not. The conclusion drawn is that the problem with zoos is structural rather than incidental. A poorly run zoo could in principle be reformed. An institution whose reason for existing is to charge for access to captive wild animals cannot be, because on this view the exploitation is the business model rather than a failure of it.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Many zoos are nonprofit, their only focus being the conservation of animals. All of their efforts are in research and the betterment of wild animals in captivity. Therefore, not all zoos are focused on profit.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Some zoos are nonprofit.