Private vs Government ownership of Zoos

[FSBlueApocalypse]

So a hobby of mine is going to various zoos and seeing exhibits/animals. I occasionally go to a message board on the subject and recently the subject of zoos in the current economic climate came up. The zoo industry as a whole has benefited from the economy thanks to people going to local attractions rather than going to Disney. The topic shifted to how zoos would act in a "Capitalist free market." My response was

I think zoos would operate much as they do now. Like it or not, zoos are in the entertainment industry and have to compete for dollars just as everyone else. Many major zoos these days are either completely off tax payer support or it makes up a small part of annual revenue. Quite a few conservation initiatives work well with capitalism. Captive breeding programs are one example. You said something like a SSP (Species Survival Plan: Zoos pool their animals together into one coordinated population) wouldn't happen because each zoo would compete against each other. Yet a SSP would be welcomed in a free market. Now every zoo benefits from having a healthy breeding population of endangered species that brings people into the zoo AND serve to represent their wild cousins. In addition, opening new exhibits (the life blood of any zoo) happens far easier under private ownership. Jacksonville broke ground on Range of the Jaguar in 2002 and opened it in March 2004 (Private zoo, one of the best exhibits in North America), their counterparts in Tampa have been trying to simply renovate their existing Asian exhibits since 2000.

What do you guys think?

[MrBogosity]

Makes sense to me!