Zoos and Porn

That's right, who has ever thought of relating a zoo with porn?
Well we touched that subject and went there the last few days in class, and its one subject that I'm not entirely sure I agree with. In class the other day, it was looked at as if Zoos were just like porn. It works this way:
Humans gaze at nonhumans (animals) as Man gazes at women.

These gazes relate to each other in the manner that they are both arrogant gazes in which the gazes initiate a way to please oneself. In the arrogant gaze, the viewer also holds an expectation as to what appears in front of them and to what the thing in front of them does.
I however don't believe that this is a good enough arguement to make a zoo comparable to pornography. Yes in some way, a zoo is a type of pleasure for someone, but I don't believe it can be compared to the type of pleasure one finds in porn.
Zoos are an educational resource. Sure one can't find how an animal really interacts with the wild and what they are like in their natural resources, but how else are you going to get up close to a 400 pound lion? I would not bring a group of 20 2nd graders to the African Wild so they can learn about lions and tigers. That would be dangerous, and unthinkable. However, I'm going to bring them to a zoo so they can learn about the animals in a controlled environment. You don't teach kids about the human body by plugging in a porno movie. You teach them in a controlled environment and through educational resouces like a dumby or a plastic manican.
If it wasn't for zoos, people would never get the opportunity to see some of nature's recent rarities like the Panda Bear or other animals endangered. In fact zoos, have been known to be some of the only places where endangered or nearly extinct animals are living because they no longer exist in the wild.