When was the last time you went to the zoo?

I have fairly ambivalent feelings about Zoos. I like open concepts zoos, or sanctuaries a lot. I hate caged animals zoos, especially where there are animals that are not near extinct and are not natural to whatever the clima there is. Like polar bears in hot countries in small areas, exposed to a lot of sun, with no ice/snow around make me super sad.

That being said, I do go to Zoos fairly often, those that I research are viewed as animal friendly or are doing important conservatory work. I cannot remember which one was the last one, I am guessing it was the Macao zoo or a Night time zoo visit in Malaysia. 

I went to see the Giant Pandas in Macao, and that was awesome, they seemed fairly content, well taken care of, plus there was a group of them, cubs and big ones, so it felt like they had friends/family there with them. I stayed for a couple of hours.

In Malaysia I went to an open space zoo at night, which was an incredible experience because they made everyone shut up and not use phones or cameras or anything, and were pretty strict about it, and you would ride (electric, quiet open car) through the safari and listen to the sounds of the nocturnal animals and eventually saw some too, but the atmosphere was something like I never experienced in any other zoo. no voices, no screaming, no phones, beautiful. I would go back yes. even though at one point i was scared because some of the animals were very close to us and since it was a safari experience it felt like if they Wanted to, they Could interact with us and who knows how that would go. especially if you hear big cats roar at night and it doesn't seem that far from your open car its pretty chilling.

In South Africa I went to a Monkey and Elephant Sanctuary near Cape-town. It was a day trip and I felt great about the monkey sanctuary. Free space, no cages, areas where you simply couldn't go just look, maybe there was water between you and the monkeys, but they had SO MUCH space. Some of the monkeys were still used to being around humans, because they were kept as pets or circus animals before and abandoned or taken away by authorities since they were being abused, and one even INSISTED on wearing a hat as that was something the monkey did for most of its life (apparently) so it was interesting to see how they do/do not adapt to more freedom and the guides were great and everybody seemed very animal loving there and the animals looked super joyful. And the goal of the sanctuary was to rehabilitate the animals for normal life in nature EVEN though not in a complete wild since its unlikely they would make it but at least here they had lots of space and freedom. So that felt like a good cause and organization.

But the elephant sanctuary was a bad idea. First part was good, just looking at them and listening to stories about elephants, but then they brought 2 of them closer to let people touch or even feed and lead them, and I am somewhat ashamed I did take part in it, wouldn't do it again, after reading up more about it. I guess that should be a big part of the prep for everyone before they visit. To ensure that they are supporting a good organisation and not contributing to animal abuse, even if it doesnt LOOK like abuse, it could be.