Basically, life in captivity endangers the physical and mental well-being of wild animals.
The animals suffer unnecessarily when captured from the wild, bred in captivity, forced to interact with humans and have to spend their lives in captivity.
All of which is something that limits the animals’ ability to unfold their natural behaviour.
If life is to be worth living for a wild animal, it must have proper food, as natural an environment as possible and the ability to express natural behaviour.
It requires that the person or persons responsible for the animal have the proper understanding of its natural needs and are able to read the mental state of the animal by observing its behaviour.
In practice, this means that the animal must have good enough space and living conditions that ensure that the animal is stimulated physically as well as mentally.
The animal must be able to search in hiding, and the environment must be diverse, complex and challenging.
In addition, the animal’s diet must be tailored to the individual’s species, age, size and state of health.
And there must be animal keepers who are trained to be able to see if the animal is healthy and thriving, and who can promote natural behaviour in the animal.
