Are you concerned about Animal Rights? Do you want to do something about the suffering of animals in zoos? Then get involved with Zoo Awareness Day!

Every year the Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS) holds Zoo Awareness Day to raise awareness of the suffering of animals in zoos. This is held on Easter Monday, one of the busiest times of the year for zoos. CAPS encourages people to do what they can to highlight the problems of zoos on this day. Examples include:

• Hold a peaceful protest outside a zoo
• Set up an information stall in a city/town centre on or around this day
• Send letters to newspapers calling on people to support wildlife in the wild, not keeping animals in zoos.

By participating in Zoo Awareness Day you can help educate the general public about the suffering caused to animals in zoos and help bring the day closer when ALL animals will be left where they belong – in the wild. We don’t need zoos anymore – if children want to see lions and foreign animals they have high definition tv these days. Keeping these beautiful creatures caged up and bored to tears for our sake is just plain wrong.
Please get in touch with CAPS to see if there is a protest organised at your local zoo. If you are unable to attend a protest, why not write letters to your local or national newspapers or you could even help spread the word in other ways.

CAPS produces leaflets, fact sheets, posters and a video to support our ‘Sad Eyes and Empty Lives’ campaign, which will send to groups free of charge who plan to hold a demonstration or information stall.

Please contact CAPS on 0845 330 3911 or via email info@captiveanimals.org if your need more information or help on Zoo Awareness Day.

Zoo Awareness Day was first started more than 10 years ago by CAPS. This event raises awareness of the animal rights and conservation issues surrounding zoos. The whole concept of zoos is increasingly under question as our knowledge of animal behaviour, natural history and threats facing wildlife increases. Zoos have historically been about tourism, and providing a ‘day out’ rather than anything to do with education, conservation and research.

Many people are now aware of the real lives of wild animal societies, through natural history programmes on TV, books and the internet. An increasing number of TV programmes focussing on wildlife has revealed the wonderful natural history of our own gardens, parks, woods etc, showing that wildlife in our own areas can be as exciting as that of other continents.

The increasing awareness of animal behaviour also reveals further the impoverished lives of animals confined to zoos, and the physical and behavioural problems captivity creates. Zoos also play an insignificant role in conservation, with the protection of natural habitats being the only serious way forward to prevent further losses of species.

Zoo Awareness Day aims to spread this awareness and encourage people to withdraw support for captive animal entertainment facilities. Across the country there will be peaceful protests outside zoos, information stalls in town centres, and people will be writing letters to local and national newspapers to spread this awareness.

For more information on the opposition to zoos see their website:

www.captiveanimals.org/zoos and www.captiveanimals.org/aquarium/suffering.htm

Don’t visit zoos – your money keeps them in business.