Ignore the fringes. We need more and bigger zoos, reserves, protected habitat. Any one who disagrees is a fruitcake.

I'm as left wing as they come and volunteered for a decade for a conservation group (trying to save wetlands, habitat for birds and fish). I'm a paying member of my local zoo. They have extensive conservation and preservation efforts. They earn my money.

Much as I dislike zoos (enclosures are too small for most critters), we need them to serve as gene-reservoirs (arks) and breeding mills.