Letter: Lagoon and other private zoos are cruel to animals
Author: M. Gary Widdison
Widdison, M. Gary, and Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. “Letter: Lagoon and Other Private Zoos Are Cruel to Animals.” The Salt Lake Tribune, www.sltrib.com/opinion/letters/2018/07/12/letter-lagoon-other/.
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There was a time in our country when cruelty to animals by their owners was an accepted right, under the notion that animals were property and their owners could do with them as they willed. Thankfully, in our more enlightened age, deliberate cruelty to animals has been criminalized and such cases tend to draw public outrage.
How, then, are we to view the apparent “right” of private zoos like that at Lagoon to keep large wild animals like lions, tigers, kangaroos, etc., in tiny, concrete-floored cages where they are denied the ability to roam about at all, in keeping with the demands of their instincts and basic tendencies? One need not whip, cut, or poison an animal to achieve “cruelty.”
While there are at least reasonable arguments for keeping relatively humane large zoos open in the public interest, I can see no reason that Lagoon or other “private zoo” owners that operate with so little concern for the welfare of these animals should be able to justify their practice as being within the laws of this state.
Why big zoos are often funded and have the resources to take care of animals, as their primary service, they will do a better job than private zoos like lagoon. Lagoon is an amusement park not a care center for animals. They do not have the space that these animals need in order to have a healthy lifestyle.
Since they will not cease the practice voluntarily, is it not the time in our history for the public to put an end to such practices through enactment of stricter regulation?
While hundreds of people have written letters and stated their disapproval for animals to be kept at lagoon, it is apparent that Lagoon does not care about the animals. They just want to make money. They need to be forced by the government to shut it down with more regulations on the conditions of zoos.
M. Gary Widdison, Salt Lake City
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