Calves roped while running up to 27 miles per hour routinely have their necks snapped back by the lasso, often resulting in neck and back injuries, bruises, broken bones, and internal hemorrhages. Calves have become paralyzed from severe spinal cord injury, and their tracheas may be totally or partially severed. (Dr. E.J. Finocchio. D.V.M., Letter to Rhode Island State Legislature, 28 Feb. 1989). Even San Antonio Livestock Exposition Executive Director Keith Martin agrees that calf roping is inhumane. Says Martin, "Do I think it hurts the calf? Sure I do. I'm not stupid." ( "Choosing Champions.") At the Connecticut Make-A-Wish Rodeo, one steer's neck was forcefully twisted until it broke.( The Hartford Courant, 2 Jun. 1998). Calves are only used in one rodeo before they are returned to the ranch or destroyed because of injuries. ("Rodeo Critics Call It 'Legalized Cruelty,'" San Francisco Chronicle, 25 Jun. 1981). Frequently, animals break loose from their pens and escape. They are often shot by police unfamiliar with and untrained in capturing livestock.

Rodeo association rules are not effective in preventing injuries and are not strictly enforced, nor are penalties severe enough to deter abusive treatment. For example, if a calf is injured during the contest, the only penalty is that the roper will not be allowed to rope another calf in that event on that day. If the roper drags the calf, he or she might be disqualified. There are no rules protecting animals during practice, and there are no objective observers or examinations required to determine if an animal is injured in an event. (International Professional Rodeo Association, "The Care and Protection of Rodeo Livestock.").

If a rodeo comes to your town, protest to local authorities (your mayor, city council and county supervisors), write letters to sponsors, leaflet at the gate, or hold a demonstration.

Check state and local laws to find out what types of activities involving animals are legal in your area. For example, a Pittsburgh law prohibiting cruelty to rodeo animals, in effect, banned rodeos altogether, since most rodeos currently touring the country use the electric prods and flank straps prohibited by the law. (Jon Schmitz, "Council Bucks Masloff's Veto on Rodeo Bill," Pittsburgh Press, 27 Nov. 1990.). Another successful means of banning rodeos is to institute a state or local ban on calf roping, the event in which cruelty is most easily documented. Since many rodeo circuits require calf roping, its elimination can result in the overall elimination of rodeo shows.

Despite their professed concern for animals, zoos are more "collections of interesting "items" than actual havens or simulated habitats. Zoos teach people that it is acceptable to keep animals in captivity, bored, cramped, lonely, and far from their natural homes.

Virginia McKenna, star of the classic movie Born Free and now an active campaigner in behalf of captive animals says, "It is the sadness of zoos which haunts me. The purposeless existence of the animals. For the four hours we spend in a zoo, the animals spend four years, or fourteen, perhaps even longer -- if not in the same zoo then in others -- day and night; summer and winter. . . . This is not conservation and surely it is not education. No, it is 'entertainment.' Not comedy, however, but tragedy."( McKenna, Virginia, et al., Beyond the Bars, 1987).

Zoos range in size and quality from cageless parks to small roadside menageries with concrete slabs and iron bars. The larger the zoo and the greater the number and variety of the animals it contains, the more it costs to provide quality care for the animals. Although more than 112 million people visit zoos in the United States and Canada every year, most zoos operate at a loss and must find ways to cut costs (which sometimes means selling animals) or adding gimmicks that will attract visitors. Zoo officials often consider profits ahead of animal well-being. A former director of the Atlanta Zoo once remarked that he was, "too far removed from the animals; they're the last thing I worry about with all the other problems." (Satchell, Michael, "Can Zoos Be Humane?," Parade, Feb. 19, 1984, p. 12.).

Neglect is a common problem in many zoos. When Dunda, an African elephant, was transferred from the San Diego Zoo to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, she was chained, pulled to the ground, and beaten with ax handles for two days. One witness described the blows as "home run swings." Such abuse may be the norm. "You have to motivate them," says San Francisco zookeeper Paul Hunter of elephants, "and the way you do that is by beating the hell out of them."( Fritsch, Jane, "Elephants in Captivity: A Dark Side," Los Angeles Times, Oct. 5, 1988).

Zoos claim to educate people and preserve species, but they frequently fall short on both counts. Most zoo enclosures are quite small, and labels provide little more information than the species' name, diet, and natural range. The animals' normal behavior is seldom discussed, much less observed, because their natural needs are seldom met. Birds' wings may be clipped so they cannot fly, aquatic animals often have little water, and the many animals that naturally live in large herds or family groups are often kept alone or, at most, in pairs. Natural hunting and mating behaviors are virtually eliminated by regulated feeding and breeding regimens. The animals are closely confined, lack privacy, and have little opportunity for mental stimulation or physical exercise, resulting in abnormal and self-destructive behavior, called zoochosis.

A worldwide study of zoos conducted by the Born Free Foundation revealed that zoochosis is rampant in confined animals around the globe. (Epstein, Randi Hutter, "Zoos Drive Animals Nuts, Study Says," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 9, 1993). Another study found that elephants spend 22 percent of their time engaging in abnormal behaviors, such as repeated head bobbing or biting cage bars, and bears spend about 30 percent of their time pacing, a sign of distress. (Epstein, Randi Hutter, "Circus Life Drives Animals Insane, Two British Rights Groups Contend," Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 24, 1993).

One sanctuary that is home to rescued zoo animals’ reports seeing frequent signs of zoochosis in animals brought to the sanctuary. Of the chimpanzees, who bite their own limbs from captivity-induced stress, the manager says: "Their hands were unrecognizable from all the scar tissue."

“More than half the world's zoos are still in bad conditions and treating chimpanzees poorly”, according to renowned chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall.( "World's Zoos Treat Chimpanzees Poorly, British Expert Says," Mesa Tribune, May 17, 1993).

As for education, zoo visitors usually spend only a few minutes at each display, seeking entertainment rather than enlightenment. A study of the zoo in Buffalo, N.Y., found that most people passed cages quickly, and described animals in such terms as "funny-looking," "dirty," or "lazy." (Jamieson, Dale, "Against Zoos," In Defense of Animals, ed. Peter Singer, 1985, p. 111).

The purpose of the majority of zoo research is to find ways to breed and maintain more animals in captivity. If zoos ceased to exist, so would the need for most of their research. Protecting species from extinction sounds like a noble goal, but zoo officials usually favor exotic or popular animals that draw crowds and publicity, and neglect less popular species. Most animals housed in zoos are not endangered, nor are they being prepared for release into natural habitats. It is nearly impossible to release captive-bred animals into the wild. A 1994 report by the World Society for the Protection of Animals showed that only 1,200 zoos out of 10,000 worldwide are registered for captive breeding and wildlife conservation. Only two percent of the world's threatened or endangered species are registered in breeding programs. (Scroon, Nicholas, "Animal Groups Say Zoos Fool the Public," The Independent, July 6, 1994). Those that are endangered may have their plight made worse by zoo focus on crowd appeal. In his book, The Last Panda, George Schaller, the scientific director of the Bronx Zoo, said that, “ zoos are actually contributing to the near-extinction of giant pandas by constantly shuttling the animals from one zoo to another for display. In-breeding is also a problem among captive populations.”

Zoo babies are great crowd-pleasers, but what happens when babies grow up? Zoos often sell or kill animals that no longer attract visitors. Deer, tigers, lions, among others, are sometimes sold to game farms where hunters pay for the privilege of killing them. Some are killed for their meat and/or hides. Other surplus animals may be sold to smaller, more poorly run zoos or to laboratories for experiments.

Ultimately, we will only save endangered species if we save their habitats and combat the reasons people kill them. Instead of supporting zoos, we should support groups like the International Primate Protection League, The Born Free Foundation, the African Wildlife Foundation, and other groups that work to preserve habitats, not habits. We should help non-profit sanctuaries, like Primarily Primates and the Performing Animal Welfare Society, that rescue and care for exotic animals, but don't sell or breed them.

Zoos truly interested in raising awareness of wildlife and conservation should follow the example of the Worldlife Center in London. The Center plans to create a high-tech zoo with no animals. Visitors would observe animals in the wild via live satellite links to the Amazon rain forest, the Great Barrier reef, Africa and a variety of other exotic locations.( Smith, Lorrayne, "Future Zoo: No Bars, No Cages, No Animals," Washington Times, Aug. 4, 1992).

Zoos are covered under the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which sets minimal housing and maintenance standards for captive animals. The AWA requires that all animal displays be licensed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which must inspect zoos once a year. However, some zoos that have passed USDA inspections with flying colors have later been found by humane groups to have numerous violations.