WEBVTT 00:00:00.229 --> 00:00:01.229 Hi there! 00:00:01.229 --> 00:00:02.569 If you’re a kid... 00:00:02.840 --> 00:00:06.100 and you love meeting really cool animals in real life 00:00:06.380 --> 00:00:08.420 and let’s be honest, who doesn’t? 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:11.000 then this video is for you! 00:00:14.969 --> 00:00:18.730 Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. 00:00:18.730 --> 00:00:22.660 I’m so excited to finally be making another video just for you. 00:00:22.660 --> 00:00:27.220 We’ve covered a LOT so far in my videos for kids, like why we don’t drink milk, 00:00:27.220 --> 00:00:34.980 eat meat or eggs or honey or wear wool, how you can be a superhero by being vegan, how 00:00:34.980 --> 00:00:39.460 fish have feelings, and we’ve even heard from real vegan kids! 00:00:39.460 --> 00:00:40.460 Whew! 00:00:40.460 --> 00:00:42.850 That’s getting long. 00:00:42.850 --> 00:00:47.280 You can watch all of those videos later if you want linked there and in the video description 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:48.280 below. 00:00:48.280 --> 00:00:51.269 Now just like in my other videos I promise that I’m not going to show you anything 00:00:51.269 --> 00:00:56.000 scary, that I’ll tell you the truth no matter what and that I won’t talk down to you, 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:59.129 cause you’re probably smarter than us adults! 00:00:59.129 --> 00:01:01.449 Today we’re going to talk about the zoo! 00:01:01.449 --> 00:01:03.539 If you’re like me, you love animals. 00:01:03.539 --> 00:01:09.500 And the idea of getting to meet amazing animals like lions, giraffes, elephants and monkeys 00:01:09.500 --> 00:01:12.220 face-to-face is pretty exciting! 00:01:12.220 --> 00:01:16.270 What’s even better is that adults think it’s a great idea too. 00:01:16.270 --> 00:01:21.590 A lot of kids go to the zoo with their family or friends, or in school on a class fieldtrip. 00:01:21.590 --> 00:01:24.080 So why would anyone not want to go to the zoo? 00:01:24.080 --> 00:01:28.060 Well, there are a number of reasons why vegans don’t go to the zoo. 00:01:28.060 --> 00:01:32.880 If you don’t know already, being vegan means you don’t eat animals or anything that comes 00:01:32.880 --> 00:01:38.300 out of them like milk, eggs, cheese, or honey or wear anything from their bodies, like wool 00:01:38.300 --> 00:01:39.860 or leather or silk. 00:01:39.860 --> 00:01:42.160 Now this may be a little confusing at first. 00:01:42.160 --> 00:01:46.950 I mean if vegans love animals so much, why wouldn’t we want to go see them? 00:01:46.950 --> 00:01:52.590 Well, being vegan isn’t just about not eating or wearing animals—it’s also about not 00:01:52.590 --> 00:01:54.840 using them for our entertainment. 00:01:54.840 --> 00:01:59.800 So it’s actually because of how much we love animals that we don’t go to the zoo. 00:01:59.800 --> 00:02:02.880 Let’s go over some of the reasons together! 00:02:02.880 --> 00:02:07.020 While there are some pretty horrible zoos out there where all of the animals are in 00:02:07.020 --> 00:02:11.450 really tiny cages, you may have seen zoos where the animals seem to have a lot of space 00:02:11.450 --> 00:02:12.620 to move around. 00:02:12.620 --> 00:02:17.569 But what may seem like a whole lot of room to you and me can still be really small for 00:02:17.569 --> 00:02:18.569 them! 00:02:18.569 --> 00:02:22.890 In nature, some animals, like elephants, will walk for miles every day. 00:02:22.890 --> 00:02:28.230 And birds will migrate thousands of miles every year, with one bird called the arctic 00:02:28.230 --> 00:02:33.569 tern, flying up to 90,000 kilometers, or nearly 56,000 miles. 00:02:33.569 --> 00:02:37.489 That’s more than going around the world two times! 00:02:37.489 --> 00:02:43.049 When you look at it that way, even the biggest cages at the nicest zoos look really, really 00:02:43.049 --> 00:02:44.200 small. 00:02:44.200 --> 00:02:47.790 Just imagine being stuck in the same room day after day after day. 00:02:47.790 --> 00:02:52.970 I’m sure that even if you had the coolest toys, sooner or later, you’d start feeling 00:02:52.970 --> 00:02:53.970 a little crazy! 00:02:53.970 --> 00:02:57.249 And that’s just how the animals feel. 00:02:57.249 --> 00:03:01.519 Only it’s not a day or two—it’s every single day for their entire lives. 00:03:01.519 --> 00:03:06.959 If you’ve ever been to a zoo, you may have seen tigers, or panthers walking back and 00:03:06.959 --> 00:03:13.579 forth, or elephants swaying side to side, monkeys climbing up and down again and again, 00:03:13.579 --> 00:03:17.310 or other animals doing the same motions over and over and over. 00:03:17.310 --> 00:03:22.440 This is something called zoochosis, which basically means these animals are going crazy 00:03:22.440 --> 00:03:23.900 from being locked up. 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:28.799 We’ve talked in other videos about how animals have feelings just like you and me, even if 00:03:28.799 --> 00:03:31.709 they express them in ways we may not understand. 00:03:31.709 --> 00:03:37.080 Well, they can also get depressed, anxious, and even become psychotic when they are in 00:03:37.080 --> 00:03:41.629 really stressful situations, just like you or I would. 00:03:41.629 --> 00:03:46.959 Some animals in zoos were trapped in the wild, taken away from their family and home. 00:03:46.959 --> 00:03:48.359 Imagine how scary that would be! 00:03:48.359 --> 00:03:54.029 Now you may be wondering, if zoos are so bad for the animals, why do so many people support 00:03:54.029 --> 00:03:55.029 them? 00:03:55.029 --> 00:03:59.640 Well, lots of people think zoos are a fun place where kids can go to learn about animals 00:03:59.640 --> 00:04:00.640 and nature. 00:04:00.640 --> 00:04:05.420 I have an entire video about zoos and education that you can watch later here, but from what 00:04:05.420 --> 00:04:10.209 we’ve already talked about, you can see why this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. 00:04:10.209 --> 00:04:15.519 I mean going to the zoo to learn about animals and nature is like riding in bumper cars to 00:04:15.519 --> 00:04:16.670 learn how to drive! 00:04:16.670 --> 00:04:20.950 Either way, you’re not going to really get the right impression! 00:04:20.950 --> 00:04:24.620 People also say that zoos are important because of their conservation programs. 00:04:24.620 --> 00:04:29.450 You see, a lot of different kinds of animals are in danger of going extinct—and some 00:04:29.450 --> 00:04:30.670 already have. 00:04:30.670 --> 00:04:34.970 Humans have destroyed their homes, polluted their habitats, and hunted them until there 00:04:34.970 --> 00:04:36.600 are only a few left. 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:40.440 Now I’m sure you know that if you hurt someone, or if you’ve done something wrong, it’s 00:04:40.440 --> 00:04:43.710 important to take responsibility and try your best to make it better. 00:04:43.710 --> 00:04:48.390 Well that’s what conservation programs are about—they help these animals repopulate, 00:04:48.390 --> 00:04:51.730 meaning grow in numbers, so that they don’t disappear forever. 00:04:51.730 --> 00:04:56.760 This is of course a very important thing for us to do, but zoos are just not the place 00:04:56.760 --> 00:04:57.760 to do it! 00:04:57.760 --> 00:05:02.420 These animals need to be as close to nature as possible, so that when the time comes, 00:05:02.420 --> 00:05:04.370 they can return to the wild. 00:05:04.370 --> 00:05:09.040 Just like you and I won’t learn much about how animals act in nature at a zoo, neither 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:11.270 will the animals born there! 00:05:11.270 --> 00:05:16.060 We can help endangered animals without sticking them in a cage for people to look at. 00:05:16.060 --> 00:05:19.010 The sad truth is that zoos are businesses. 00:05:19.010 --> 00:05:24.010 I know I’ve said this before in a lot of my videos for you, but so many times, the 00:05:24.010 --> 00:05:29.560 strange and even really awful things adults do is because of money. 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:33.470 And I’ll be honest, it can be hard not going to the zoo if it’s one of your favorite 00:05:33.470 --> 00:05:34.470 things! 00:05:34.470 --> 00:05:38.810 But I know you’re old enough and smart enough to know that just because you want something, 00:05:38.810 --> 00:05:42.490 doesn’t mean it’s okay to hurt someone else to get it. 00:05:42.490 --> 00:05:47.500 This is something we adults are usually pretty good at teaching, but not at all something 00:05:47.500 --> 00:05:49.460 we’re good at doing! 00:05:49.460 --> 00:05:54.360 Sometimes the best way to love animals is to leave them alone to be animals! 00:05:54.360 --> 00:05:58.180 You can still learn all about them in their natural habitat, and much better than you 00:05:58.180 --> 00:05:59.600 could in a zoo! 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:04.310 There are so many books, TV shows, and movies that bring you all over the world to see all 00:06:04.310 --> 00:06:05.610 kinds of amazing animals! 00:06:05.610 --> 00:06:10.880 You can even still meet some of them in real life at places like farm animal sanctuaries. 00:06:10.880 --> 00:06:15.390 I’ve included links on the blog post for this video to help you find places to meet 00:06:15.390 --> 00:06:18.000 animals and how to learn more about them! 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:22.690 You can be a friend to the animals all over the world when you say NO to zoos! 00:06:22.690 --> 00:06:26.940 And just like we talked about in my video about being a superhero, when you don’t 00:06:26.940 --> 00:06:30.940 eat animals either, you’re also helping the environment, so they can stay in their 00:06:30.940 --> 00:06:32.900 homes where they belong. 00:06:32.900 --> 00:06:34.960 Not in cages or enclosures. 00:06:34.960 --> 00:06:36.560 But with their family. 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:37.560 Just like it should be. 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:39.310 Now that’s pretty amazing. 00:06:39.310 --> 00:06:41.580 I hope this video was helpful. 00:06:41.580 --> 00:06:44.980 Let me know what you thought in the comments and if you have other things you’d like 00:06:44.980 --> 00:06:47.440 me to cover, feel free to tell me! 00:06:47.440 --> 00:06:51.240 If you liked this video, do give it a thumbs up and share it around to help other kids 00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:52.240 learn the truth. 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:55.890 If you’re new here, do hit that big red subscribe button down there for more awesome 00:06:55.890 --> 00:07:00.360 vegan content every week and to not miss out the on the rest of my videos for kids. 00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:04.120 If you’re an adult and you want to help support Bite Size Vegan, check out either 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:07.030 of the support links in the video description below or click on the Nugget Army icon or 00:07:07.030 --> 00:07:08.070 the link in the sidebar. 00:07:08.070 --> 00:07:12.730 Now go live vegan, say “no way!” to zoo day, and I’ll see you soon!