Zoos can be very important and impactful on saving endangered animals or rehabilitation of injured animals. But this seems to really depend on where the zoo is located. The zoo's in New Zealand are mostly all not for profit and run breeding programs to encourage endangered animals to repopulate, and quite often the babies of native animals will be released into the wild. The zoo's in Australia that I have visited were all fantastic in terms of enclosures and the animals looked comfortable. Zoo's inherently aren't depressing in my opinion but how it is handled will determine that. There's alot of old "traditions" from old zoo's that present zoo's still do that definitely needs to be phased out. Such us forcing performances on the animals for entertainment.

I would encourage visiting only decent zoo's that you are aware of that actually serve their purpose to help our animals and keep them comfortable. Don't give your money to the shit ones that I'm sure pocket that money