Zoo animals increasingly live to old age, creating demands for geriatric veterinary care, pain management, and humane end-of-life decisions that zoos are developing protocols to address.
As zoo animals live longer, the welfare obligations of geriatric care become increasingly important. An elderly elephant or gorilla experiencing significant pain from arthritis deserves the same quality of palliative care as any other patient, including appropriate analgesia, environmental modifications to reduce physical demands, and — when quality of life can no longer be maintained — compassionate euthanasia. The decision to euthanase a zoo animal is sometimes delayed by institutional reluctance to lose beloved individuals or concerns about public reaction. The welfare standard is clear: when quality of life cannot be sustained through palliative care, euthanasia is the welfare-positive choice. Zoos that develop clear, publicly communicated end-of-life frameworks demonstrate mature welfare thinking.