I am a big fan of most zoos too, so I wouldn’t want anyone to write them off completely. As I’ve gotten to learn more about the animals, when I get time to talk to staff now, I’ve been getting more info on the regulations and licensing they have to navigate, and transitioning from a place helping animals to one that also displays animals is a pretty big leap, and that is going to require much more overhead. While many cases won’t be as extreme as a huge zoo like OP was looking at, that would seem to be what leads to larger and larger zoos starting to look more like a typical corporation on paper like that.