The SAN Juan de Aragon Zoo

There have been many problems
With this particular zoo
A lot of animals die there
That factor is true
Built in 1964
Supposedly to be
More open and it never worked
So apparently
in 1999 they closed the zoo
And remodelled it
Opened it in 2002
But it was still not fit

For purpose as I understand
Concrete everywhere
Cell like cages
Absolutely no shade
It’s not fair
To open all these places
What we have to know
Is captivity is awful
For the animals on show

Knowledge is important
Each animals needs are great
Different so more specialists
Must be on hand to recreate
Environments and eating needs
Zebras need to feed
All day, they need pasture
Or it may just lead
To coprophagia sadly
Their feces may contain
Hay and so they eat it
It’s a symptom Of disdain
They are not getting enough food
They need to eat all day
Otherwise they will eat their poo
Just to get the hay

Animals are neglected
They must be studied well
captivity already stressful
Watching them will tell
Really how they are coping
And zoo’s are far from good
Specialists are needed
And each species understood

This zoo has 1600 animals resident, I hear
135 species which is very clear
There isn’t an admission
fee
So money probably
Is tight and therefore possibly
It’s really hard to be

on top of every circumstance
Which animals do need
In fact they are just prisoners
Wild animals that lead
A life stuck inside cages
Probably they feed
On less than fresh foods daily
Which maybe less than what they need

Animals have feelings
And they have knowledge too
They feel and can sustain themselves
In the wild it’s what they do
They eat certain plants and grasses
For their equilibrium, they
Do this in the wild
But in our prisons
The delay

Is that we cannot feel for them
Neither do we know
If perhaps they are ailing
Until it starts to show
So we need real specialists
Who can understand their plight
Stuck on concrete floors all day
How can that be right

No shade in the sunlight
Deaths become a thing
In the last six years some 400 souls
Have died there which does bring
The problem of the lack of what is expertise
All of them confined
They cannot eat what they choose to eat
And that tends to blow their mind

Zoo’s are last tbeir sell by date We need to share habitats
And at the worst sanctuaries and reserves
Policed against hunting poaching trapping