As debate continues to rage over the welfare of animals in captivity, David Field is hoping to drag the sector forward
He has loved zoos all his life, but would close many of them down if he could.
David Field, who this month became head of the world’s zoo industry group, said of zoos that treat animals badly: “It makes me feel desperate. I’ve probably in my life tried to close down more zoos than open them.”
He’s taken up the mantle of keeping the world’s zoos in check at an interesting time, when their role in modern society is the subject of heated debate, with rows about lonely gorillas or penguins kept in a basement seem to erupt every week. Keeping wild animals solely for entertainment purposes was socially acceptable some decades ago, but there are now far more concerns for their welfare and the conservation objectives of their captivity. This particularly applies to animals such as elephants, which need large spaces to roam and in the wild have complex relationships within giant social groups.
As the new president of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Field will be, he hopes, in a position to address some of that. Speaking to the Guardian exclusively, he said: “There are many zoos in this country and certainly abroad that I would like to see closed. I think there are zoos in the UK and exotic animal collections that are not achieving the standards we would expect and also are not giving back in terms of conservation and education, and that is fundamentally wrong.”
