That's what I keep thinking as I look at these photos. If I was visiting this "education park" I would rather not see any spider monkeys (or baboons, or hyaenas, or much else for that matter) at all than see them in this tiny inappropriate cage. It's not just these sorts of places that annoy me in this way either. Kansas City Zoo looks really nice but would the visitors even notice if there weren't any orang-utans? When there are bad exhibits at a zoo your going to have bad memories of it. I don't mean to attack KCZ especially but it was the first example that came to my head. I'm sure you could use many a zoo as an example of this.
This was the first "roadside zoo" I've ever visited, and it was sad. Not every animal had a bad exhibit, but all the primates did When I was leaving the owner had two of his "pet" monkeys (spider and capuchin) climbing all over people, while some children were feeding them business cards. There is no educational factor at this zoo, and I honestly with he would either send the primates away or put them out of their misery. Of course I agree with you PAT, KCZ should get rid of the orangs until a better exhibit can be built. Same with tigers. Zoos like Brookfield, Omaha, and Philadelphia got rid of their elephants (one of the most popular zoo animals) and are still doing well to my knowlege. Why have animals in a crappy exhibit? Just for the sake of having them?
I always cite the example of Detroit Zoo, which created shockwaves in the zoological world when they sent their elephants away to a sanctuary about a decade ago because the zoo felt that it could not provide an optimal environment for them. In recent times Detroit has broken its all-time attendance record on at least 4-5 occasions, illustrating the fact that a zoo can send away its most popular animals and not even skip a beat.
In the UK there are a lot of major zoos without elephants including 2 of the capital cities zoos (London and Edinburgh). Elephants do not make or break a zoo so I have to agree that keeping animals in sub-standard enclosures is (or should be) a no go for any respectable establishment. Getting back on topic this "zoo" is awful, no primates should be kept like this and this isn't even the worst cage there from what I've seen in KCZooFans photo's.
