Is there anything wrong with taking an animal from the wild
and confining it to restricted living quarters. In other words, are zoos “kosher”?
We should not romanticize life in the wild, which, for animals, is often “nasty, brutish and short,” to borrow Thomas Hobbes’s famous line.
It’s true that animals are brought to zoos against their will and do not receive a salary for their efforts. But it’s also true that zoos try to replicate the animals’ natural habitat (if only to keep them alive and well), so they gain a measure of protection they otherwise would not necessarily have.
Additionally, we should not identify with animals, and ask, “How would we feel if we were cooped up?” Animals are not “almost humans.” As long as they’re treated well, zoos do not present a moral problem.
We maintain that animals were created to serve mankind; they are not our equals in the hierarchy of creation. Zoos bring joy to young and old. Zoos are not only kosher; they also enable us, as Chacham Ovadia Yosef pointed out (Yechaveh Daat 3:66), to marvel at G-d’s creations and sing His praises.
It is recorded that the Terumat Hadeshen (in the 1400s) walked some distance one Shabbat to see two lions that had been brought for display to a city. He had never seen lions before.
Similarly, the Chida traveled through much of the world and would visit zoos in every city that had one – both to satisfy his innate curiosity and to revel in the greatness of G-d’s handiwork.
There are extensive discussions among poskim on the appropriate beracha to recite upon seeing an unusual species or an exceptionally beautiful animal or bird (“meshaneh habriyot,” “shekacha lo b’olamo”).
These discussions alone underscore the permissibility and usefulness of zoos as well as the importance of visiting them, so that we may sense “how great are Your works, Hashem!” (Tehillim 92:6).
— Rabbi Steven Pruzansky is the Israel regional
vice president for the Coalition for Jewish Values
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I personally would not put animals in a cage. They suffer there.
For the same reason, people should not cage up dogs in their homes; they should afford them wide open spaces as they are liable to cause the animal suffering otherwise.
— Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, chief rabbi of Tzefas
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The Gemara assumes in several places that tzaar baalei chayim – causing or ignoring animals’ pain – is a Biblical prohibition based on the obligation of perikah u’te’inah, to unload and adjust an animal’s pack to alleviate its struggles.
The question asks if there’s “anything wrong with taking an animal from the wild and confining it to restricted living quarters.” The word “restricted” has a negative connotation, as if the animal won’t live as freely or pleasurably as it does in the wild.
There is something wrong with it (although not absolutely prohibited, which is why medical research may be done with animals even though they’re often confined to restricted living quarters), but the question as it relates to zoos is complicated. Many zoos give animals living spaces that mimic their usual habitats, and some studies indicate that animals live longer in captivity.
So zoos might be kosher and confining animals might be wrong – or vice versa. The answer depends on many other factors, including the purpose behind all this tampering with animals’ lives.
— Rabbi Dr. Gidon Rothstein, author, regular
contributor to www.Torahmusings.com
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On one hand, capturing and confining an animal can be considered a form of tzaar baalei chayim, which is prohibited, especially with regards to undomesticated animals that resist captivity.
On the other hand, we don’t find an explicit prohibition in Judaism against building zoos. Indeed, a number of gedolei Yisrael throughout the generations visited zoos and made the appropriate blessings when seeing certain animals. Among these were the Chida and the Terumas Hadeshen.
These visits are cited by poskim as proof that one may visit a zoo (see, for example, Rav Ovadiah Yosef, Chazon Ovadiah, pp. 453-456; Rabbi Betzalel Stern, Ohalecha B’amitecha, pp. 173-174; and Rabbi Yitzchak Eshkoli, Tzaar Baalei Chaim, pp. 211-216).
One can argue that although it may be prohibited (or preferable not) to build a zoo, once a zoo exists, it is permitted to visit it.
A final point worth pondering: The prohibition against tzeida – trapping and confining an animal on Shabbos (Mishnah, Shabbos 106b) – only applies on Shabbos. Perhaps we can derive from this Shabbos prohibition that trapping an animal is not ordinarily forbidden.
— Rabbi Simon Jacobson, renowned
Lubavitch author and lecturer
