Zoos breed their animals or buy them from other zoos. Babies are big crowd pleasers, but as the babies grow up they don't attract the same number of people, so zoos often sell them out to make room for younger animals. The unwanted adults are sometimes sold to 'game farms', where hunters pay to kill them; Some are killed for their meat and/or skins. Other "surplus" animals may be sold for experiments to smaller, more poorly managed zoos or, worse, to laboratories.
See PETA's fact sheet for more informationZoo.
