On today’s episode, we speak with Damian Aspinall, chairman of the Aspinall Foundation, a UK charity that works to conserve endangered animals and return them to the wild.

Back in June of this year we welcomed Jim Breheny onto the Mongabay Newscast. Breheny is director of the Bronx Zoo in New York City and one of the stars of the Animal Planet TV show The Zoo. He and I discussed the evolution of zoos and aquariums that he’s witnessed over his 40-plus-year career. He told me that zoos not only preserve species for the future but support field work to protect species in the wild, as well, and for that reason are vital to wildlife conservation today.

Our guest today, Damian Aspinall, does not agree that zoos are important for conservation of wild species. In fact, he argues that keeping animals in captivity in zoos is cruel, inhumane — and unnecessary.

Aspinall appears on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast to discuss why he is calling for all zoos around the world to be closed down within the next 30 years, and how he says the work of preserving rare and endangered species could be better accomplished by in situ conservation interventions.

Here’s this episode’s top news:

• Controversial dam gets green light to flood a Philippine protected area
• Emperor penguins could disappear by 2100 if nations don’t cap emissions
• There’s a new fin whale subspecies in the North Pacific

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Featured Image Credit: Screenshot from “Animal Reunions, March 2016,” Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

Follow Mike Gaworecki on Twitter: @mikeg2001

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