My dad was and is staunchly opposed to all zoos, so growing up we never really went to any outside a primary school trip and maybe a trip to west midlands safari park or something when me and my siblings were really driving my mum insane during school holidays one year.
So when I was about 22 and in San Diego for the first time, I thought I'd go to the zoo. San Diego Zoo at the time was supposed to be the best in the world, cageless exhibits and absolutely huge, and loads of conservation going on, and I felt like I was going to finally see a bit of stereotypical childhood that I'd missed out.
But after 4 hours of walking around and taking it all in, I was left with the distinct impression that if this was the best zoo in the world, there just shouldn't be any zoos - or at least there's a great deal of animals - Tigers, Lions, Elephants, Giraffes, birds that should never be in zoos. Seeing a bunch of Elephants share an area the size of a football pitch while being told they naturally walk up to 200km per day was genuinely upsetting, as was the fact that the general tone of the other visitors was not really one of conservation or education at all, but just wanting a selfie with every exotic animal, no one was really reading the exhibits or listening to the speakers. No one was paying attention to the rules.
In a world where everyone can watch David Attenborough documentaries in HD on youtube, and there's 3m+ acre sanctuaries in Africa that can home them, I don't think there's a place for an Elephant to be locked up in Chester.
Anyway I doubt they'll be going away any time soon, but I think I'll follow my old man on this one and just steer clear of them myself when I have kids.