Bioparc Valencia: circa 2013

Rock hyraxes and guineafowl in a walkthrough aviary.
That day was very insufferable, as dumbass zoo visitors kept the two doors to the aviary open at once! And they\'re excuse for being uneducated idiots is "Oh, we\'re village people!".
And don\'t even get me started on the aardvark burrows... >:C

Keepers were present hopefully to tell them off? And what happened at the aardvark burrows?

There wasn't a zookeeper in sight! It was me and my mom telling them not to keep the two doors open like ******!
And in the aardvark burrow, idiots of all ages were yelling at the top of their lungs and banging at the glass so that the aardvarks, bat-eared foxes, etc. would wake up. I would have taken pictures of such animals, but I was so enraged that I pretty much stormed out of there.
My conclusion is that the Spanish state doesn't deserve zoos; no matter how much these progress and become larger and more free-range, people will always go in four kinds in this retarded peninsula:
- glass-knocking food-chucking screaming ********s who incite their children to do the same.
- anti-zoo PETArds who think tapirs are anteaters, say that penguins should go back to Alaska, have super-noisy demonstrations at the zoo gate, further bothering the animals, and have pet cats and dogs they've forced to be vegan!
- People who are both of the former categories at once!
- ... Weirdos like me who truly respect animals and know what they need: a comfortable place to repopulate, safe from the guns of poachers, the bansaws on their tree homes, and the ignorance of the mass populous...

Its not about if the people of Iberian Peninsula deserve a zoo. Everyone deserves something, and to the animal lovers and those who want to work with animals of a greater kinds than the familiarity and likes of domestics than it offers just that. You're not thinking the broader picture right now. The zoo is a place for families. That's always its target audience. Its not just about conservation and education for the reintroduction of species, its biggest goal is entertainment. That has been the purpose of the zoo since the first known menagerie was created. Most people go to the zoo to entertain themselves, and learn something along the way.

I have never heard a tapir be called an anteater in my whole life. They've always been those "pigs with elephant trunks".

Last, other members of this site live on that peninsula. Home may never be perfect, but it's home. And if you think all there are in Spain are faulty, Concrete-abyssed zoos, this is not one of them.

I am more than aware and more than happy that zoos in Spain are making gigantic steps forward, making much larger, more comfortable, and more natural-looking enclosures for the animals.
I also know that the zoo is for the people's entertainment and education, and I'm happy to see families taking their kids to the zoo... If it's done right! The thing is that I've travelled round the world, and in zoos in more cultured countries, like Singapore and New Zealand, people enjoy the animals in a quiet, respectful manner. Many times I go to a Zoo in the Spanish state, I see parents doing the following:
- Letting their kids bang the glass, or worse yet, banging the glass themselves.
- Allowing their kids to scream at the animals, or worse yet, inciting them to do it.
- People throwing food, coins, etc. in lowered animal enclosures.
- Parents telling their children "the animals are miserable" at every bleeding enclosure, breeding more PETArds into the world...