I think the issue that zoos face is on the one hand being an old fashioned menagerie merely housing animals for entertainment and two trying to balance that with some sort of relevance for modern populations.
The ethics of housing wild animals so that the public and in particular our children are educated and entertained are questionable in the modern world. So zoos have had to take on the "conservation" and "research" mantle in a bid to assuage those who are perhaps a bit offended by the sight of wild animals being cooped up in cages.
Now, it is possible to hold childrens parties in zoos as well as corporate events
http://www.zoo.org.au/melbourne/plan-yo ... venue-hire .
Zoos are actually trying their best to accommodate a public that are maybe a bit jaded as regards zoos. Once they have visualised David Attenborough's real wild world or taken tours to see real game, then the zoo is often a sorry comparison.
Although I appreciate that there may be a role for zoos, the nitty gritty reality of zoos is perhaps not really something I can agree with.
One gripe that I have with zoos is the surplus zoo animal trade and the euthanising of healthy animals to make way for prettier or younger or more popular ones. So whilst my heart loves to see those cute cubs and pups and calves and fawns, my head tells me that the numbers bred world wide are huge that not all will find good homes. Some will not be in such happy circumstances and some may not even be still alive next year when the new bunch arrives. Even endangered animals are euthanised if they are genetically similar and therefore unneeded for conservation projects.
Another downside is the fact that many animals are still taken from the wild to provide "interesting" exhibits...
I hope that the technological world will do more as regards teaching the young about animals as sentient beings in the future, so that real wild animals do not have to spend their days in the zoo environment in such large numbers.
http://www.captiveanimals.org/wp-conten ... -Lives.pdf