Copenhagen Zoo Murders Healthy Giraffe Over Overbreeding Concerns
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Despite protests and offers from wildlife parks, the Copenhagen Zoo is facing more than a little wrath today after it put down a healthy young male giraffe with a bolt pistol and fed its meat to zoo carnivores—all over concerns about inbreeding, reports the AP.
Two-year-old Marius was considered “surplus,” reports the BBC, because he was genetically similar—yet inferior—to many giraffes already within the breeding program of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria.
A zoo representative stands by the animal’s destruction, noting that it’s responsible practice. “Giraffes today breed very well, and when they do you have to choose and make sure the ones you keep are the ones with the best genes,” he says, adding that the zoo puts down some 20 to 30 animals per year.
Animal rights activists are outraged, and an online petition to save Marius garnered some 20,000 signatures; zoos including the UK’s Yorkshire Wildlife Park offered to take in Marius. “It just shows that the zoo is in fact not the ethical institution that it wants to portray itself as being, because here you have a waste product—that being Marius,” says one activist. “I can’t believe it,” adds the director of a Netherlands wildlife park. “We offered to save his life. Zoos need to change the way they do business.”
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Coming straight to the comments, since I don’t want to take a chance on seeing a dead baby giraffe. They supposedly did the autopsy of it in front of a bunch of kids visiting the zoo also. I’m of the opinion if they were going to do this, because you know it happens in the wild, they should have taken him around the back where no one is and done their deed.
This whole thin about keeping nature alive, is interfering with nature’s process. That is why my grand father would never let me help a small bird that had fallen from a nest. Nature works things out in a balanced way. Man screws it up.
I don’t understand this. I agree with Mike. Why not just neuter the poor thing?
What happened to the edit function?
It is a huge program that’s slowing down loading times, so I deactivated it.
I have never been worried about loading times, I just go to another tab and check back in a bit to see what errors I’ve made.
Yes, there are some and often, too.
It slows down the site loading times, globally. I’m working on a fix at the moment.
I have to say, I have noticed faster loading times, even though that has never been an issue for me.
Yet, in the wild, an inferior animal would likely be eaten by lions and not killed so humanely. A bolt pistol is instantaneous and much safer for all concerned. Or maybe we should equip wild lions with them?
True but why not just neuter the critter, and let one of the wildlife parks have him?
Good point. But then they would have to feed him instead of him becoming food.
The neutering should have been done a couple of generations ago and to prevent the birth of “surplus” animals. That’s hardly an original idea with me.