Yesterday, Kandice, Alexis, Mason, Cole and I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo for a family day. As we toured the zoo, which was the first I have visited in at least ten years, I began to wonder if zoos in general are an educational necessity or animal cruelty?

The first known recorded zoo was built in approximately 1500BC by Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt. Since then, societies throughout time have erected zoos to show off prize animals as a way of proving power and wealth, to study animal and plant life - and to educate children on the many other species of the world.

But as I made my way through the Lincoln Park Zoo, which was established in 1868 and is one of the oldest zoos in the country, hosting close to three million visitors every year - I wondered if forcefully taking these animals from their natural habitats and placing them in cages for our own purposes was morally appropriate?

In many cases, animals that are endangered, such as the Siberian Tigers that live at the Lincoln Park Zoo, are benefiting from their captivity by ensuring the continuation of their species. Thanks to the Zoo's Kovler Lion House, which has been a staple of the zoo since 1912, the Siberian Tiger has a fighting chance from the permanency of extinction. And in addition to saving animals, zoos also play a vital role in captive breeding, the study of animal behavior in a captive environment - and even scientific research. The animals are also given three square meals a day and, unlike their counterparts in the wild, never have to worry where their next meal is going to come from.

But on the flipside, animals that live in or are born in captivity, I feel, are denied the freedom they would have had if we as humans did not capture them, sedate them and cart them off from their "homes" in their natural habitats to a zoological facility of our choice to live out the rest of their lives. As we made our way through the Lion House yesterday, I couldn't help but notice a Snow Leopard that was feverously pacing back and forth in his "cage," staring intently at the people that stopped to look at him. Despite the fact that he is in a controlled and comfortable environment, given three sqaure meals a day - and is free of the fear and constant worry of "the wild" - would he have chosen to live in captivity if given the chance to do so?

I think that if humans were the second most intelligent creatures on the Earth instead of the first, and the imaginary dominant species took us from our homes and locked us in cages to be looked at and studied, you can bet we would have a problem with it. So is it ok to do that to the rest of the creatures on the planet simply because they can't verbally resist?

Don't get me wrong, zoos are in many ways necessary and have a long history of preserving wildlife and contributing to our environment. I just feel bad for the animals locked in those cages - because after our tour of the zoo was over - I got to go home - to my natural habitat...

...and they can't - ever.