Hi there!
If you’re a kid...
and you love meeting really cool animals in real life
and let’s be honest, who doesn’t?
then this video is for you!
Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget.
I’m so excited to finally be making another video just for you.
We’ve covered a LOT so far in my videos for kids, like why we don’t drink milk,
eat meat or eggs or honey or wear wool, how you can be a superhero by being vegan, how
fish have feelings, and we’ve even heard from real vegan kids!
Whew!
That’s getting long.
You can watch all of those videos later if you want linked there and in the video description
below.
Now just like in my other videos I promise that I’m not going to show you anything
scary, that I’ll tell you the truth no matter what and that I won’t talk down to you,
cause you’re probably smarter than us adults!
Today we’re going to talk about the zoo!
If you’re like me, you love animals.
And the idea of getting to meet amazing animals like lions, giraffes, elephants and monkeys
face-to-face is pretty exciting!
What’s even better is that adults think it’s a great idea too.
A lot of kids go to the zoo with their family or friends, or in school on a class fieldtrip.
So why would anyone not want to go to the zoo?
Well, there are a number of reasons why vegans don’t go to the zoo.
If you don’t know already, being vegan means you don’t eat animals or anything that comes
out of them like milk, eggs, cheese, or honey or wear anything from their bodies, like wool
or leather or silk.
Now this may be a little confusing at first.
I mean if vegans love animals so much, why wouldn’t we want to go see them?
Well, being vegan isn’t just about not eating or wearing animals—it’s also about not
using them for our entertainment.
So it’s actually because of how much we love animals that we don’t go to the zoo.
Let’s go over some of the reasons together!
While there are some pretty horrible zoos out there where all of the animals are in
really tiny cages, you may have seen zoos where the animals seem to have a lot of space
to move around.
But what may seem like a whole lot of room to you and me can still be really small for
them!
In nature, some animals, like elephants, will walk for miles every day.
And birds will migrate thousands of miles every year, with one bird called the arctic
tern, flying up to 90,000 kilometers, or nearly 56,000 miles.
That’s more than going around the world two times!
When you look at it that way, even the biggest cages at the nicest zoos look really, really
small.
Just imagine being stuck in the same room day after day after day.
I’m sure that even if you had the coolest toys, sooner or later, you’d start feeling
a little crazy!
And that’s just how the animals feel.
Only it’s not a day or two—it’s every single day for their entire lives.
If you’ve ever been to a zoo, you may have seen tigers, or panthers walking back and
forth, or elephants swaying side to side, monkeys climbing up and down again and again,
or other animals doing the same motions over and over and over.
This is something called zoochosis, which basically means these animals are going crazy
from being locked up.
We’ve talked in other videos about how animals have feelings just like you and me, even if
they express them in ways we may not understand.
Well, they can also get depressed, anxious, and even become psychotic when they are in
really stressful situations, just like you or I would.
Some animals in zoos were trapped in the wild, taken away from their family and home.
Imagine how scary that would be!
Now you may be wondering, if zoos are so bad for the animals, why do so many people support
them?
Well, lots of people think zoos are a fun place where kids can go to learn about animals
and nature.
I have an entire video about zoos and education that you can watch later here, but from what
we’ve already talked about, you can see why this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
I mean going to the zoo to learn about animals and nature is like riding in bumper cars to
learn how to drive!
Either way, you’re not going to really get the right impression!
People also say that zoos are important because of their conservation programs.
You see, a lot of different kinds of animals are in danger of going extinct—and some
already have.
Humans have destroyed their homes, polluted their habitats, and hunted them until there
are only a few left.
Now I’m sure you know that if you hurt someone, or if you’ve done something wrong, it’s
important to take responsibility and try your best to make it better.
Well that’s what conservation programs are about—they help these animals repopulate,
meaning grow in numbers, so that they don’t disappear forever.
This is of course a very important thing for us to do, but zoos are just not the place
to do it!
These animals need to be as close to nature as possible, so that when the time comes,
they can return to the wild.
Just like you and I won’t learn much about how animals act in nature at a zoo, neither
will the animals born there!
We can help endangered animals without sticking them in a cage for people to look at.
The sad truth is that zoos are businesses.
I know I’ve said this before in a lot of my videos for you, but so many times, the
strange and even really awful things adults do is because of money.
And I’ll be honest, it can be hard not going to the zoo if it’s one of your favorite
things!
But I know you’re old enough and smart enough to know that just because you want something,
doesn’t mean it’s okay to hurt someone else to get it.
This is something we adults are usually pretty good at teaching, but not at all something
we’re good at doing!
Sometimes the best way to love animals is to leave them alone to be animals!
You can still learn all about them in their natural habitat, and much better than you
could in a zoo!
There are so many books, TV shows, and movies that bring you all over the world to see all
kinds of amazing animals!
You can even still meet some of them in real life at places like farm animal sanctuaries.
I’ve included links on the blog post for this video to help you find places to meet
animals and how to learn more about them!
You can be a friend to the animals all over the world when you say NO to zoos!
And just like we talked about in my video about being a superhero, when you don’t
eat animals either, you’re also helping the environment, so they can stay in their
homes where they belong.
Not in cages or enclosures.
But with their family.
Just like it should be.
Now that’s pretty amazing.
I hope this video was helpful.
Let me know what you thought in the comments and if you have other things you’d like
me to cover, feel free to tell me!
If you liked this video, do give it a thumbs up and share it around to help other kids
learn the truth.
If you’re new here, do hit that big red subscribe button down there for more awesome
vegan content every week and to not miss out the on the rest of my videos for kids.
If you’re an adult and you want to help support Bite Size Vegan, check out either
of the support links in the video description below or click on the Nugget Army icon or
the link in the sidebar.
Now go live vegan, say “no way!” to zoo day, and I’ll see you soon!