Nurture nature

Published on 08/08/2012 00:00

I completely agree with Pat Lines (Letters, 6 August) that keeping big cats, in fact, all non-domesticated animals and some domesticated ones, is cruel.

But conditions are vastly improved for animals in zoos. Need we look any further than our own Edinburgh Zoo and Highland Wildlife Park? Edinburgh Zoo is small, but the effort the charity is putting in to ensure a good quality of life for its inhabitants is wonderful.

While putting these creatures up on a podium is unkind, it costs a lot of money to keep all these animals healthy and fed in good environments and there aren’t many other ways for zoos to generate this money.

I do believe that being in captivity is sometimes better than being in the wild for animals. We all know the risks they face.

I would much rather have a small population of endangered animals in zoos than have a whole species die out, forever. At least that way they have a chance.

Andie Caldwell

Lanark Road West

Currie, Midlothian