Government agencies and animal welfare organizations also contact zoos whenever the need arises to place an animal confiscated because it has been illegally imported or acquired or has been rescued from unsuitable circumstances and which needs special and expert care and appropriate housing. Zoos usually are cooperative but they also may have to decline to take such animals in their custody when e.g. they do not have appropriate quarantine facilities, have no appropriate enclosures, fear the risk of disease when accepting an animal of unknown origin, don't see any purpose in incorporating an animal of unknown origin into their breeding program or see no way how such an animal could be integrated socially into their group of conspecifics.
