by Elsa Shepard
Upon the COVID-19 pandemic, another industry that has been hit hard from this virus are zoos, and their animals, around the world. Seeing that COVID-19 caused less people to visit zoos around the globe, it has caused zoos to go into financial debt since they still had to care for their animals during the pandemic with little to no income rolling in. On top of this, the costs for animals have increased through the pandemic due to some animals testing positive for COVID-19. Now seeing all of this, here is how all these factors have affected zoos as a whole.
According to the CDC, they say that the spread of COVID-19 virus between animals and people is possible and has occurred (The table below shows a list of animals who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the United States Department of Agriculture), seeing as this virus originated from a bat. Although this way is a way the virus can spread, it is not common enough to make a big impact on the rise of COVID-19 cases. That does not mean, however, that this shouldn’t be worrisome since the virus can still affect the health of animals. Since no vaccine has yet been made to stop this virus, the only way that animals can be treated of the virus is through medications that help cure the symptoms of the virus. According to Wellness, it can cost anywhere from $90-$400 per annual veterinary routine; Although this routine involves diagnosing the animal, it does not include any medicines prescribed by the doctor. Alone, this cost may look small, but when you add it to every other animal in the zoo, it adds up pretty quick.
Extending more on the financial impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has put on zoos, according to Chron, it costs anywhere from $38-$50 million dollars to run a zoo each year. Knowing this along with the facts given by USA Today that states, “Guests provide more than 90% of revenue through tickets, concessions, rides, gifts and parties”, it is clearly seen that this has become a fast growing issue for zoos. According to USA Today, it costs zoos about $55,000 a day to feed all the animals at the zoo on top of the costs that are given from the veterinarians who have check-up appointments with the animals and prescribe them with medicines as needed (which is also an additional cost). Seeing all these fees, with only about 10% of their normal income coming in, it is no wonder that zoos and their animals are struggling to get the help they need to stay healthy and open due to this extreme decrease in their income. The only reason most zoos were able to get by during the pandemic was because of money they had saved up and the low income they were receiving.
Concluding this blog, one last impact that the lack of financial income has done was the American economy. According to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, “Accredited zoos and aquariums contributed more than $22.5 billion to the U.S. economy”. Seeing this large financial impact, it is clearly seen that the negative financial impact that has been put on the zoo industry has not only affected them, but also the American economy. After learning about the negative impact, both financially and physically, that has been put upon zoo animals, the zoo industry, and the American economy, it is hard to know if any of these variables will recover from the burdens that the COVID-19 pandemic has put upon them.
This is an interesting new perspective. Most of the news today just shows us what happening to the human population and economic consequences. I didn't think much of zoos during the first stage of lockdown.I never thought about COVID spreading from animal to human, but now that I think about it, that's how most sickness start.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a serious topic that we pass and don't care about. Not only does Covid-19 effect our lives it effects everyone else. Business are dying because we aren't staying safe to stay open. We need to social distance, we want this virus gone so we have to take proper action. Or zoos and possibly other interaction places will be taken from us.
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy to think about how it effects animals because we are so worried about keeping ourselves safe that we forget about the fact that animals in zoo's rely on humans to feed them and other necessary things. Realy nice job!
ReplyDeleteI haven't really thought about Covid impacting zoo's, but now I can see the massive destruction covid has done to the zoo's. I like how you chose to write about the animals and the other business that are struggling that nobody can really see, not just how it affects the economy and going back to school. I wonder how much longer the zoo's and continue this without shutting down completely.
ReplyDeleteI've never really thought about how COVID could have such an impact on Zoo's. Its crazy to see how much COVID has had an affect on, and this post really showed me that it can have an impact on many things that some of us may not even pay attention to. I wonder what it will take to keep the Zoo's open along with other businesses many don't pay much attention to.
ReplyDeleteNumber 1: I really like the topic you decided to write your blog about. One statement that really stood out to me was how there is only a 10% income coming in to help the zoo make profit. This really takes a toll on the zoo because with all the money they have to get in order to keep it running, they need people to come to the zoo in order to make that money back. According to Weforum.org as animals and people are getting sick, there is more help needed in zoos to take care of the animals. Less people want to work in the zoo because of risk. This is just one other reason the Coronavirus is affecting the economy. People are losing jobs with the zoo and even in general.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a lot of good points that make complete sense but I've just never really considered before. The first I noticed was the fact that Coronavirus can be spread through animals. I didn't know this but as you reminded us that it originated from a bat, that would make sense. Another one is that fact that it costs so much to maintain a zoo. With all of the food and hygiene things that are necessary to keep each of the animals healthy, it costs a lot of money. The fact that 90 percent of a zoo's income was another one of those interesting facts, and it's so sad to see how significantly these zoo's are suffering from the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteWhen focusing in on more specifc types of companies, zoo's are definitely one that will catch an eye. I love the topic you chose for your blog. Though it is so sad to think that those animals are not getting the proper care due to lack of income in the industry. In your blog you included that animals are becoming more expensive to purchase. This was interesting to me because as humans we put an amount on an animals life and thats suddenly what their purpose is, to fulfill a finical need. We buy/sell/contain these animals as if we own them, when truly the earth owns and holds everything they already needed to survive.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic. I haven't thought about the way COVID-19 has been affecting zoo's and the animals. I actually didn't know that animals can catch COVID-19. Providing that chart of the different animals, when they were diagnosed, where they were diagnosed and what method was used to diagnose each one was very eye opening. It's crazy how much this virus is really affecting and uncontrollably. It's sad that we don't know if the zoo animals, zoo industry and American economy will recover from this. If they do recover, I wonder how so.
ReplyDeleteI never realized the effect that this is having on our wildlife population and how much need should be brought to this portion of the number of things that are struggling with COVID. I think it brings in a new perspective of what we can do as humans to help animals out. It's saddening to think that this virus can affect more than one species and that humans aren't the only ones struggling. Zoos should not definitely be providing the proper care to these animals so they don't purposely kill these animals. Overall, I think Elsa did a very good job explaining how it affects animals and the graphs provided a lot of insight to the problem.
ReplyDeleteWhen people think of the effects of COVID on the world, I feel that zoos are commonly not thought about. I used to go to the zoo all the time as a kid; being so young, I never really thought of all the costs that they face, and how much they rely on visitors for income. Now thinking about it, it makes sense. All the costs of the veterinary bills are inelastic, so no matter how much they are, the zoos have to pay them even if they don't have the funds for them.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting and informative piece! Quite frankly, effects on the zoo is not something that comes to mind when I think about the Pandemic and how it's effected the world. The zoo is a place we all loved to go as kids but quite often we forget about it as we get older. But yes, like other industries covid has negatively impacted zoos too! They have specific payment structures that have been going for years to pay for animals and facilities. This pandemic definitely hits that structure as most of the costs have been and are fixed.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a lot of points that I have either not thought of or bave thought of. I have seen that there were some positive COVID cases in some dogs, meaning it is possible that zoo animals can get infected by the virus. I didn't think too hard about the fact that the virus originated from a bat, so it could be possible that the virus affects mroe than just humans. It is kind of shocking to see how much it costs to run a zoo. I expect the amount of zoo visitors to decrease in the past years, as I know people's interest in going to the zoo can begin to wane, which will affect the amount of money that a zoo receives. And with the virus requiring that people stay home, I can imagine that their budget will become harder to maintain over the years. This could affect employee wages, which leads to workers being cut off and laid off work. If this happens, zoos are in potential danger of shutting down. It may be even harder to feed their animals. I can imagine taht most animals might have to be forced back into the wild, or in a worse scenario, have to be put down.
ReplyDeleteThis post was very interesting to me, I guess I inferred that zoos would be hurt by the pandemic, but I never realized how much. My curiosity now is how they are going to make that money back. The Milwaukee Zoo for example is already pretty expensive to get into and since zoos are an elastic "service" I can see not as many people going to zoos with an increased price. This also caused me to wonder though, how do zoos make most of their money? My bet is on concessions so perhaps they will up the price slightly on treats or do more marketing to attract customers in that are. Overall, I'm interested to see how zoos come back, if they do.
ReplyDeleteIt is surprising how much it takes to run a zoo, I never really thought about how much money it would take to care for just one animal for one year, let alone a zoo full of them. It makes sense why zoo’s prices of admissions and concessions are so high, to cover all those expenses. I wonder how zoos are going to come back from this. Will prices of admission rise even higher? Or will there be fewer attractions due to the lower income? I also wonder how they will enforce the social distancing and mask rules. Will they enforce mask wearing while in the zoo even in the outdoor attractions? Or only for the indoor attractions? There is still the risk of an outbreak at a zoo where high numbers of people get Covid-19 and the zoo has to close again, will government step in and help that zoo to continue to care for the animals or will leave the zoo to fend for itself.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about how much it would take to care for a zoo animal and the low income they are seeing right now is crazy! I think it is possible they might raise prices for items and tickets to make up for the major damages. I mean, imagine imagine how much money it costs to care for a giraffe, I have no idea how they are stating afloat, perhaps donations? Either way the risk of an outbreak is too high for people to be attending the zoo right now, but maybe they could set up a foundation for support with this pandemic.
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ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting topic and one that not many people talk about because I never considered thinking about zoos during this pandemic, but after reading this it’s actually kind of concerning. I didn’t realize how much zoos take this much responsibility for animals. It is kind of risky for a lot of people to go to the zoo right now because of COVID-19, but we should do something to help these zoos and animals.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this blog post and thought it was very interesting to see how COVID-19 is affecting every business across the world in different ways. I had never thought about zoos shutting down, and how this could have horrible effects on them, especially due to the high price of food for them. It is crazy to think that it costs about $55,000 per day to feed these animals and support their cost of living. I would also presume that there have not been too many zoo COVID-19 outbreaks throughout this year and that they are trying to keep everything as sanitary as possible. I have heard that animals can not really have symptoms from the virus, but I believe it is mostly referred to dogs, and there are many other animals than that. This definitely could make sense as zoos are trying to keep as many animals safe as possible, especially as most of the animals are extremely expensive. Zoos are a business I never really expected to get effected by COVID-19 as I expect governments to financially assist them, however it makes sense and is very intriguing to learn about.
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