A zoo or zoo is usually an outdoor area where live animals are kept in cages or large enclosures. A zoo will display a variety of animal species, some of which normally reside in different climates and environments, brought from all over the world to provide entertainment for people. However, unlike individuals who enjoy watching them, animals are unhappy and suffer. Therefore, this essay will explain why zoos should be banned. The elements that will be discussed will be the possibility of animals being harmed by the public or zoo staff; how captivity can be harmful to an animal's health; and why zoos hinder animal conservation efforts. First, keeping animals in zoos should be illegal because zoo owners and visitors occasionally mistreat animals. One situation that illustrates this brutality is when sixty-four out of seventy-one guinea pigs died at the Edmonton Valley Zoo on May 25, 2010 after someone intentionally placed poisoned oranges in the rodents' cages. Another incident that exemplifies this harmful behavior was when an autopsy performed on March 2, 2012 on a recently deceased giraffe at the Surabaya Zoo in Indonesia revealed a 20-kilogram piece of plastic in the animal's stomach. It appears that the pieces of plastic, which were 60 centimeters in diameter, were food wrappers thrown by zoo visitors and rubbish that had ended up in the giraffe's stable. This improperly disposed of rubbish posed a serious suffocation hazard to the giraffe; this therefore shows that visitors and zoo staff sometimes neglect their responsibility to ensure that the Hibbert 2 animals have a safe environment in which to reside. Furthermore, from January to March 2010, eleven S...... half of paper.... ...iron. In conclusion, zoos should be illegal because animals kept in captivity are sometimes improperly cared for or killed by visitors or zoo staff; their mental health worsens; and zoos interfere with animal protection efforts. Although some zoos claim to study animals, these creatures are kept in artificial environments; therefore, the results obtained from observations will be inaccurate. Additionally, other zoos say they are protecting species from extinction; however, most animals in zoos are not in danger of extinction, so it can be assumed that they were chosen because they attract many visitors. Clearly, zoo owners are more concerned with receiving a profit than caring for the animals they have imprisoned. Therefore, it is everyone's responsibility to ensure that animals are respected and treated appropriately because they are not capable of doing so on their own.