Stop gawking and help save the animals

Re Should we bother reopening the Toronto Zoo?, May 19 More than a century ago, those afflicted with mental illness were kept chained in institutions, such as Britain’s notorious Bedlam, for the paid amusement of the population at large. No treatment was offered to them, no medical advances were realized.

In the 2000s, we continue to keep the beasts of the Earth in such displays. Although great sums of money are spent on these facilities, the animals contained therein suffer confined and hapless lives, displayed for the disinterested masses who come to gawk.

Better that these zoos be closed to the public and kept as preservation and research areas in the hopes of preserving as many species as we can. The list of endangered species grows steadily while the funds that could be put into their preservation and continuance in the wild state are spent on popular entertainment.

Our money and our efforts are being totally misdirected. The public zoo is a concept whose time has come and passed. Robert Kent, Mississauga