topic Re: That Danish zoo… in Community Chat

That Danish zoo…

------ — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 03:47:34 GMT

that killed their giraffe and fed it to the lions has now killed 4 lions that ate that giraffe.

From the NYT:

Denmark, the land of enchanting fairy tales and liberal social values, is becoming known as the land of dead zoo animals.

The Copenhagen Zoo, which generated global outrage last month when itkilled a healthy 18-month-old giraffe named Marius, said it had to euthanize four lions this week to clear the path for a newly arrived young male lion. The zoo’s decision created a backlash on social media on Wednesday, with some calling the zoo’s staff members “serial killers” and “murderers.”

The zoo justified the killings of the two parents, ages 14 and 16, and their cubs on the grounds of genetic purity and conservation, noting that the new lion would invariably prey on the cubs, while there was a risk that the older male lion would try to breed with one of the female lions that were his offspring.

“If the zoo had not made the change in the pride now, then we would have risked that the old male would mate with these two females — his own offspring — and thereby give rise to inbreeding,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.

The zoo attracted international ire after shooting Marius in the head, and then, in what animal rights groups called a nightmarish spectacle, dissecting him in front of a crowd that included children, before feeding him to a group of lions. At the time, it invoked a similar argument, noting that zoos in Europe have a small gene pool and that there was a risk of inbreeding if Marius reproduced.

Some say the killings, fairly or not, are undermining Danes’ international image. “Danes are used to being looked upon as the good guys, as people who put a lot of money into foreign aid, and have a high living standard,” Bo Sondergaard, national affairs editor at Politiken, a leading Danish newspaper, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “Now when you say you are from Denmark, people say, ‘Oh, the giraffe killers.’ “

After Marius was killed, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals projected a giant lit-up message at the zoo’s entrance that read, “Zoos are animal prisons: You paid the ticket, Marius paid with his life.” One reader in Britain wrote to The Guardian that the “public execution of Marius and his equally public consumption by lions does rather make Danish noir crime on BBC4 easier to understand, psychologically.”

While animal rights activists on both sides of the Atlantic have expressed anger at the animal deaths, the emotional debate over animal euthanasia also reflects a cultural divide between the United States and Europe, which is relatively more open to euthanizing animals in the name of conservation and ensuring genetic diversity.

Gerald D!ck, a zoologist who is executive director of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, said that the Danish approach was not unique and that zoos across Europe euthanized animals, typically only as a last resort. He noted that while American zoos preferred to use contraception to prevent overpopulation or inbreeding, European zoos often favored allowed animals to breed and express their natural behavior, including sexual reproduction.

“In Europe, there is a strict attempt to maintain genetically pure animals and not waste space in a zoo for genetically useless specimens,” he said. “The counterargument is that people want to see a giraffe in a zoo. But that is not good science in terms of conservation. Nobody wants to have to kill animals, but it is sometimes necessary.”

Jesper Mohring-Jensen, a biologist at the Jyllands Park Zoo in western Denmark, said that rather than being brutal, the Copenhagen Zoo was simply putting common sense above sentimentality. “It’s better for the animal to have a good life than to live” and have a bad life, he said by phone. “That is the Danish view, which is different from the American view. The discussion can sometimes become unscientific and based more on feelings than understanding of animals. Nature doesn’t have the same concept of justice as humans.”

Yet some noted a small justice in the fact that the lions killed were among those that had feasted on Marius’s remains.

Re: That Danish zoo…

JaneMarple — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 03:59:04 GMT

I had a thread about this last night, and was absolutely disgusted. I strongly believe that this zoo needs to close.

Re: That Danish zoo…

gazelle77 — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:00:00 GMT

I think it us horrible....but how do you stop it? I mean really?

Re: That Danish zoo…

------ — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:09:20 GMT

More than sign the petition on change.org to amend European Association of Zoos and Aquaria's euthanasia policies and post on the fb ""Close Copenhagen Zoo"" Im not sure what else can be done. What a horrible situation for the animals at that zoo.

Re: That Danish zoo…

hsawaknow — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 22:26:19 GMT

Killing the cubs?!!!! The zoo couldnt find homes for them or the two adult males? This after the outrage of the killing og the giraffe? This zoo needs to be shut down. This is no safe haven for wild animals and sending a nightmare of a message about our species.

Re: That Danish zoo…

AngelPuppy1 — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 12:15:01 GMT

I have found little that has sickened me more than this. These beautiful animals slaughtered and then what else they did with them -- and in the audience of children!! They are beyond sick, heartless, cruel and demented. They need to be punished and this place needs to be shut down permanently and the remaining animals removed to a sanctuary where they will be protected and cared for. Shameless and no excuse!!!!!

Re: That Danish zoo…

------ — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 13:59:16 GMT

On 3/29/2014 AngelPuppy1 said:
I have found little that has sickened me more than this. These beautiful animals slaughtered and then what else they did with them -- and in the audience of children!! They are beyond sick, heartless, cruel and demented. They need to be punished and this place needs to be shut down permanently and the remaining animals removed to a sanctuary where they will be protected and cared for. Shameless and no excuse!!!!!

ITA. This isn't a zoo. It's a slaughterhouse

Re: That Danish zoo…

Baylie — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 14:16:04 GMT

I saw them feeding the giraffe to the lions on television yesterday. It was the most horrifying thing I have ever seen and there were children watching. That place needs to be shut down NOW!

Re: That Danish zoo…

Catfancy — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 15:14:38 GMT

Why couldn't they trade these animals to another zoo? Or at least killed them at night where people couldn't see this horrible event.

Re: That Danish zoo…

lolakimono — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 15:16:32 GMT

Am I missing something? Why can't they spay/neuter the animals that they don't want to produce MORE offspring?