Zoos and aquariums are beloved by many both as exciting places to visit and as institutions that in various ways contribute to the preservation of endangered species and saving wild places. A task that is only becoming more important as the biodiversity crisis continues to escalate. At the same time, zoos are under increased scrutiny from an ethical viewpoint, with certain NGOs and academics critically assessing both individual practices and the overall idea of zoos and aquariums.

The Danish Center for Ethical Education (Center for Etisk Dannelse) invite to an afternoon of ethical debate about the role of zoos and aquariums in conservation, animal wellbeing and education and some of the ethical challenges and opportunities that they raise. The afternoon will consist of three short talks by the zoological director of Copenhagen Zoo Mads Bertelsen, researcher and animal welfare expert Sabrina Brando, founder and director of Interbeing AnimalConcepts, and Mickey Gjerris, bioethicist at the University of Copenhagen. This will be followed by a discussion and time for Q&A with the audience. Moderator of the event will be Alexander Holm, biologist and known, among many things, from the podcast Den Dyriske Time.

Zoos and aquariums typically provide the following reasons for their existence: 

1. They provide an opportunity for the public to meet animals they would otherwise never encounter and thereby create interest and fascination that encourage the public to become more aware of nature and animals, potentially leading to both economic support for conservation efforts and changes in behavior in favor of a more compassionate and environmentally friendly lifestyle.
2. They play an important role in conservation efforts, both by maintaining healthy populations of threatened species through breeding programs and by running conservation projects in range countries including reintroductions of certain species.
3. The animals in their custody can promote research contributing knowledge valuable both for animals in captivity and in the wild.

Sceptics on the other hand typically highlight the following challenges:

1. Many zoos are first and foremost commercial enterprises that depend on attracting paying visitors, and this shapes which animals are acquired and how they are displayed, favouring charismatic, crowd-pleasing species and entertaining presentations over the animals’ own interests.
2. Only a small minority of the species held in zoos are actually threatened, and even for those the captive populations may be too small to remain genetically viable in the long run, while successful reintroductions to the wild remain rare and costly.
3. Keeping sentient animals confined for human purposes is in itself a violation of their liberty and inherent worth, and no instrumental benefit — whether amusement, education, research or conservation — can outweigh that wrong.

The three speakers each provides different perspectives on these issues: The embedded director, the wellbeing consultant working in and with zoos and aquariums, and the ethicist standing outside looking in. In their talks they will touch upon issues such as:

1. The balance between care for the individual animal and conservation of the species
2. The tension between care for the individual animal and the preferences of the guests
3. The challenge of promoting conservation and sustainability and systems thinking
4. The challenge of promoting environmentally friendly behavior while selling hot dogs
5. The balance between animal wellbeing, conservation and other goals, and care for staff wellbeing