Before zoos || Early zoos || Cages || Entertainment || Attitudes || Conservation || Good zoos || Bad zoos

Animals for entertainment

People went to the zoo to be entertained, and to have fun. So, often the animals were used to provide that fun.

It was very common in zoos, right up to your grandparent's time, to have elephants giving children rides around the zoo paths.

Noone really worried about whether this was good for the elephant or not.

It was just part of the fun you expected to have when you took children to the zoo.

It was particularly primates, such as chimps and orangutans, who were used as entertainment.

They used to get taught how to do things like people, and sometimes they were even dressed in clothing.

The chimp's tea party was part of Auckland zoo up to quite modern times, and there are plenty of people still alive who remember going to see that at the Auckland Zoo.

In the picture to the right, you can see some chimps sitting in a pram, while in the background, are the kinds of cages they spent the rest of their time in.

Sometimes they were even taught to smoke cigarettes.

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