to be fair, some of the problems are caused by the stupid tourists/attendees, (though they sure make it worse)....

I was once taken to the new primate house at the Topeka, Kansas zoo by a friend who worked as a zookeeper (elsewhere). He pointed out the lovely new gorilla cage....where we observed a young man in his late teens or so, ignoring the "do not feed the animals" sign, and leaning over the rail to HAND the 500 lb. male gorilla Hershey's Kisses!! It was indeed fascinating to watch the grateful animal delicately peel the foil from each candy and pop it into his mouth.....It would have been even MORE 'interesting' to see the gorilla yank the kid's arm off if he had teased the gorilla a bit. It was pointed out to me that not only was the cage design dangerous to the people who won't read signs, but that it should have been designed (glass covered) to protect the gorillas and other primates from direct contact with people who carry diseases.

Now...what MOST people (who didn't have a zookeeper friend) didn't know, was that when the exhibit was originally designed, there was a locking lever on the back of the gorilla cage for access from the rear (to move animals, etc.) that was within reach of a clever gorilla who paid attention! Yep...he 'could' have have just reached thru the bars and let himself out......Fortunately, this was corrected before some incident made the papers.