My reasearch highlights that we think about animals in conflicting ways, that context is highly important in how we interpret an animals behavior, and that we have a wide range of feelings about animal emotions.

In zoos, and other places where animals are heavily managed by people, our beliefs about what animals need, like, dislike, or don’t need have major impacts on their lives.

Conservation may be important to zoos, but the idea that it should be embedded at an exhibit level is not universally held.

My experiences in zoos, animal shelters, therapeutic horse barns, and animal sanctuaries show that the place in which an animal held and the reason it is being held there greatly impacts our concern for an animal’s welfare.