Links to articles with pro zoo facts would be great. Thank you so much. We are always looking for excellent sources that give both sides of an argument so that the students can form their own opinion and then are able to write a well-written paper supported by facts. Thank you again.
No, thank you, for being open to teaching about how zoos are important and are doing a great job.
First, I do want to say not all zoos or places where animals are in human care, are created equal. There are some very bad places and someone may call those places zoos, but they aren't the kind of facilities I'm promoting and I wish people didn't lump them together.
A few ways to tell a good zoo from a bad one: Non-profit, conservation oriented, and contact with animals are limited to displaying behaviors that are necessary for the care and treatment of the animal. Someone mentioned performing animals, but they aren't performing in a quality accredited zoo. The zoo is allowing you to see behaviors that animals do naturally or that is needed to allow humans to provide observation and medical treatment. Just think about it. If a lion is limping, the staff needs to see what is wrong. Which is more humane...knocking them down with a sedative or teaching them to stand on all fours to allow the staff to see if anything is wrong?
There are many, many misconceptions about zoos and therefore it is a little difficult to not become very confused and that is why I wanted to mention the above, when looking for information or reading articles. Just like I wouldn't take advice on how to do surgery from a guy that owns a carwash, please don't give credence to articles that pretend to have facts if they are not in the business of animal science. That's where people can be led to believe films like blackfish. Animal activists have an agenda and they will list facts for you, but if you can't find those facts in a scientific forum, I caution skepticism.
I also want to bring up the often-mentioned idea that people know what an animal is feeling and then using that feeling to justify why animals should not be in human care. It is called anthropomorphism. It is our way of thinking that animals feel like we do, especially when it comes to their facial expressions or behaviors. Here again, unless you are an expert on animal behavior, you really don't know what an animal is feeling.
The first place to start is with the organization that evaluates zoos for best practices,
https://www.aza.org/. There you will find a lot of information. The next is
https://www.waza.org/. They talk about zoo's around the world.
National Geographic is a good resource and I believe, will have lesson plans for children.
This article talks about 10 animals that have been saved from extinction by zoos.
https://medium.com/search?q=10 Endangered Animals. The modern, quality, zoo is awesome!
I hope that's some information and maybe some perception to help you evaluate what you read and present to your students.