Posted on 02/10/2014 5:18:02 PM PST by Innovative
Staff at a Danish zoo where a healthy giraffe was put down have received death threats as debate rages online over the killing, which took place despite a petition signed by thousands of animal lovers.
Several staff members were targeted after the animal, named Marius, was shot Sunday, Copenhagen Zoo spokesman Tobias Stenbæk Bro told CNN on Monday.
The Copenhagen Zoo said it "euthanized" Marius to avoid inbreeding. A veterinarian shot Marius with a rifle as he leaned down to munch on rye bread, a favorite snack. After an autopsy the giraffe was dismembered in front of an audience that included children and fed to the zoo's lions, tigers and leopards.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
/johnny
But I don’t eat any type of red meat.
Your particular dietary preferences are irrelevant to the broader story.
/johnny
That’s you. Not me.
I wonder if they will ever see another animal from anywhere outside of Europe ever again. Other zoos may cut them off from trade. They just THINK they have a “genetic diversity” problem now...
/johnny
I am sooooo offended by your use of the F bomb... Furthermore, how DARE you evoke G-d in the same line. You ought to be absolutely ASHAMED of yourself!
A British zoo offered to take him, and giraffes are a lot more scarce than lions. Piss on these euro monkeys.
“Zoos cull all the time.
/johnny”
They don’t get bad publicity like that all the time.
They have a stupidity problem. How much other common meat would $700000 buy?!
I’m sure you are right - not so much what they did but how they did it. An antelope burger (or a giraffe) for the lions is appropriate when there are too many, but not in front of little kids, for Pete’s sake.
Exactly, it’s not as if the Giraffe had no where else to go. It was a stupidly cruel thing to do. If this zoo wants meat to feed their lions, they should ask for donations.
It’s the other way around — a damaged humanity will choose socialism.
The zoo’s reason for not selling him to another zoo was to prevent inbreeding. (Not sure how great an excuse that was, but that was what they said.)
The thing that bothers me was not that they killed an excess giraffe, but that they *allowed* that “excess” giraffe to be born in the first place. Didn’t they know from the start that his genes wouldn’t be up to grade? So the zoo apparently let him be born and had this cute little giraffe around for a while, a real visitor magnet . . . and then when he wasn’t so cute anymore it was time to off him. Like people who get baby rabbits for Easter or kittens for Christmas and then dump them when they’re not all cute anymore. That to me smacks of primary irresponsibility on the part of the zoo.
As a Dane I think there are a couple of points that needs to be cleared.
Marius the Giraffe, was reaching sexual maturity. That means his father would attack him. No male giraffe will tolerate another male giraffe around his females, castrated or not.
The zoo had been trying to find another place for Marius, without success.
The zoo is working along with around 350 other zoos in a breeding programme, because due to lack of control Giraffe’s in zoos are beginning to show signs of inbreeding.
Copenhagen Zoo allows the giraffes as far as at all possible to figure it out among themselves when they want to breed and with whom, so no pill for the giraffes).
A zoo in Holland offered in the last minute to take Marius. That zoo, refuse, repeat refuse, to take part in the breeding programme.
Another zoo in Sweden, also in the last minute, offered to take him as well. But they don’t have other giraffes, and giraffes are social animals. Nor are their handlers experienced in looking after giraffes.
Someone offered to buy the giraffe. As a matter of principle Copenhagen Zoo, do not sell their animals, simply because there is no control of what happens to animals afterwards.
A zoo in England also offered to take him, but their giraffes are not of the same breed as Marius, so Apparantly they won’t mix.
Genetically speaking Marius was surplus, so he was put down. Which happens regularly, but most zoos don’t talk about it - well, it’s obvious now why...
As for children watching Marius being dissected. That is normal in Denmark.
My own children have seen a beached whale and a lion being dissected and they have seen a cow being fed to lions. They are not traumatized, because Danish children learn by watching that meat does not grow in supermarkets.
Lions being fed is actually a favorite among kindergartens going to the zoos and having a hunter come to a kindergarten with animals he has shot, to show the dead animal to children, and let them touch the animal, is very common.
The onlookers to Marius’ dissection were normal zoo-audience who had been invited by the zoo and as you can see from the footage, it’s a crowd pleaser.
It’s the adults who are disgusted, the children are fascinated and iquisitive.
One of the currently most popular TV shows here is about a hunter and a cook, who go to shoot varius animals, break them up and cook them on primetime TV. There is no censorship, no “warnings”, no outcry.
Why should there be? The children at the zoo saw what practically every single human ever being born in the history of mankind would also have seen; an animal being butchered.
And for the record, the scientists are interested in Marius intestines (for the enzymes)and his heart in particular. (Because he was a young healthy giraffe).
Marius died at eighteen months.
Every single day of his life he had been fed.
Had access to clean fresh water.
Had a warm shelter.
Was safe.
Was with his family.
Got medical attention if he needed it.
- Eighteen months old human children die every day without having had such a life.
Getting an offer and cash in hand are two way different things...
My bet is the money offered was a ploy to save the animal...and was not a real offer...
I have no idea what a giraffe costs to buy...but $600,000 seems like a lot...
You actually believe everything the media reports...?
And out of the blue comes some common sense and facts, thank you. Those that are upset with this know little of how breeding programs and raising live stock work, and yes in a Zoo they are simply live stock. That hamburger they ate at lunch or the bacon they had for breakfast did not come from old wore out cows and hog’s that are past their prime. Most were last years little brown eyed calf and piglet and most were males. Every year we bring in the cows and seperate them, we might save a few heifers but the little bulls are sold off. The heifers we save are put in a different pasture with the new bulls so we don’t get a tight gene pool and that sounds like what they were facing. Had Marius had he been a female most likely they would have saved it but as a male it served no more purpose than being a novelty since he couldn’t be breed back in. Our bulls fight constantly in an effort to breed and we have lost a few over the years. To neuter him and put him in with another male at his age would have been a death sentence. This takes place on a daily basis everyday all over the US, these animals are consumed largely by people with other parts going to dog’s cat’s and even zoo’s.
What animal should have been killed to feed the lions?
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