The Wild Animal Sanctuary: A Better Alternative for Captive Animals?

Note: This post is not an attack on any zoos, and I am not endorsing zoos that abuse their animals.

In my town of Denver, Colorado, the Denver Zoo is a big hit. The kids at my school are all over that place. What kid wouldn’t be? I don’t know if this is how it works now, but when I was in third grade, you were the coolest kid if you had your birthday party at the Denver Zoo. With some of that Chuck E. Cheese pizza? Sign me up. It was totally worth it to brave through that animal stink, if you got to take just one peek at the tigers in the big cat exhibit.

Recently, I went to the Wild Animal Sanctuary and something that struck my interest immediately was how big the enclosures were compared to the Denver Zoo ones. The word enclosure doesn’t do the Wild Animal Sanctuary justice. (Though I can’t give the Denver Zoo too much grief — it is located in the middle of Denver after all.) The Wild Animal Sanctuary is a bit far out if you live in Denver.

Some people protest about zoos in general, and, before I go on, I do want to say that I agree with captivity in zoos under certain circumstances.  Zoos that treat their animals badly and poach wild animals from their nature habitats should be shut down, but the Wild Animal Sanctuary gets all their animals from rescue cases where an animal was being illegally kept.

The Wild Animal Sanctuary mostly keeps carnivores like lions, tigers and bears (oh my!), but the Wildlife Sanctuary will not shy away from taking in camels, alpacas and ostriches (oh…. my?).

One of their most famous exhibits is the one containing 24 Bolivian Lions that all came from circuses. These beautiful creatures live in 80 acres of habitat in four separate prides. It is also worth noting that the Wildlife Animal Sanctuary has taken in two porcupines and a raccoon.

The Wildlife Animal Sanctuary is definitely worth checking out if you get the chance. There are new enclosures sprouting up frequently, and they treat all the animals at the sanctuary with the respect they deserve. You can go send them some love at

http://www.wildanimalsanctuary.org!

(Psst … Did you guys see the note at the beginning of this post about zoos? This stuff is getting too serious for me ya’ll!)