I'm well aware of how horrible the worst zoos can be, but not all of them are so because of profit incentives. Some historical zoos (especially in lesser developed, less wealthy nations) who want to do cutting edge conservation programs for their local wildlife (e.g. Thao Cam Vien in Vietnam is the only zoo to have successfully bred the critically endangered Vietnamese crested argus pheasant in captivity, which is the zoo I grew up visiting) are limited by their funding and even more so because of COVID restrictions on zoo visitation. But nevertheless, zoos have come a long way from being complexes of dull, torturous prison cells.

Zoos are good. In addition to public education, they have a lot of conservation and repopulation programs for endangered species. Plus, most zoo animals nowadays are animals who were born and raised in captivity or are animals who can never be released into the wild because of injury or trauma. Plus, in a zoo the animal will always have access to veterinarians.