false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175533994m/524443.jpg 524443 1 Zoos are places where animals are protected, kept safe from the ravages of the outside world and sheltered from extinction, right? Not necessarily, writes investigative reporter Alan Green, who takes his readers behind the bars in <I>Animal Underworld</I> to tell an unsettling tale of deception and cruelty.<p> That story opens at a zoo in northern Virginia, one of many such places around the United States in which black bears, once an exotic sight, have become a too-common commodity. Baby bears bring crowds, Green writes; unruly juveniles and listless adults do not. What happens to the bears who cannot contribute to the zoo's overhead? Animal sanctuaries are already overfull; individuals are not allowed to keep bears as pets without hard-to-obtain licenses; and bears raised in cages do not know how to fend for themselves in the wild. There is simply no place for them, Green writes, and the bears have economic worth only for their parts--the claws for jewelry, the flesh for restaurants, the paws for Asian apothecaries.<p> The nefarious means by which supposedly protected animals--many in danger of disappearing in the wild--are brought to market forms the heart of Green's disturbing report. Some of the country's most important zoos and museums turn up as villains in his pages, and readers will likely never visit such places again without wondering at the fate of the creatures that look out at them from the other side of the cage. <I>--Gregory McNamee</I> 512307 6 3 2006 Animal Underworld: Inside America's Black Market for Rare and Exotic Species total:3|4:1|2:2| 3 8 9 1 2 0 false false Fri Jun 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 13:02:35 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 17:52:04 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Sep 28 06:30:02 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 06:30:02 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Sep 13 07:54:30 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 07:54:30 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jul 17 11:09:29 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 17 11:09:29 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Fri Jun 27 20:31:22 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 10 19:09:01 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Apr 16 14:46:57 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 14:46:57 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Thu Apr 10 15:17:10 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 10 15:17:10 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Wed Oct 08 13:12:39 -0700 2008 Sun Dec 23 21:39:55 -0800 2007 Wed Oct 08 13:12:39 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Thu Sep 06 14:18:10 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 06 14:18:10 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=524443