ABSTRACT
This chapter tackles the question whether keeping animals in zoos and aquariums is ethically defensible. We argue that principled objections to the very existence of zoos and aquariums are difficult to defend, but that even if zoos and aquariums are ethically acceptable in principle, they are not necessarily acceptable in terms of their practices. We draw on two recent controversies—keeping wild elephants in US zoos and killing Marius the giraffe in Copenhagen Zoo—to inform a consideration of what might count as an “ethically defensible” zoo or aquarium, and we explore the ethical challenges that face such institutions.
