When Knut was born last December his mother ignored him, zoo officials intervened and chose to raise him themselves
Posted on 03/19/2007 12:08:29 PM PDT by Stoat
The Berlin Zoo's abandoned polar bear cub Knut looks cute, cuddly and has become a front-page media darling, but animal rights activists insisted he would be better off dead than raised by humans.
When Knut was born last December his mother ignored him, zoo officials intervened and chose to raise him themselves
"Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws," animal rights activist Frank Albrecht told the mass-circulation Bild, which has featured regular full-color photo spreads tracking fuzzy Knut's frolicking. "The zoo must kill the bear."
When Knut - or "Cute Knut," as the 8.7 kilogram (19 pound) bear has become known - was born last December, his mother ignored him and his brother, who later died. Zoo officials intervened, choosing to raise the cub themselves.
Activists argue that it is inappropriate for a predator, known for its fierceness and ability to fend for itself in the wild, to be snuggled
But Albrecht and other activists fret that it is inappropriate for a predator, known for its fierceness and ability to fend for itself in the wild, to be snuggled, bottle-fed and made a poster child by zookeepers - and even star-photographer Annie Leibovitz.
The activists argue that current treatment of the cub is inhumane and could lead to future difficulties interacting with fellow polar bears.
"They cannot domesticate a wild animal," Ruediger Schmiedel, head of the Foundation for Bears, told Der Spiegel weekly in its Monday edition.
They cite a similar case of a baby sloth bear that was abandoned by its mother last December in the Leipzig city zoo and killed by lethal injection, rather than being kept alive by humans.
But he is the Berlin Zoo's bear and their veterinarian Andre Schuele, charged with caring for Knut, disagrees.
"These criticisms make me angry, but you can't take them so seriously," Andre Schuele said.
"Polar bears live alone in the wild; I see no logical reason why this bear should be killed."
Schuele also argued that given the increased rarity of polar bears in the wild, it makes sense to keep them alive in captivity so that they can be bred.
"Polar bears are under threat of extinction, and if we feed the bear with a bottle, it has a good chance of growing up and perhaps becoming attractive as a stud for other zoos," Schuele said.
Knut, who recently posed for a photo shoot with Leibovitz for an environmental protection campaign, is scheduled to make his public debut at the zoo later this week or early next week, according to Schuele.
Until then, Germans can follow the bear's progress in a vast photo spread and videos of Knut drinking from his bottle, bathing and playing with teddy bears and soccer balls, all available on the zoo's Web site.
On FR the other day somebody said that we're now at the awkward stage where we can't work withing the system but it's too early to shoot people.
Then we could film it and fund a polar bear rescue foundation with the pay-per-view revenue.
BTW, were those really Wilde's last words? If so, talk about being a wit to the last!
Earlier than that. Their closure was one of the reasons for the upsurge in homelessness which the media blamed on Reagan's economic policies.
YIKES!! Think that man's a homo now?
Well, if he's so mentally weak and deranged as to spout the idiocy that he does, I suppose anything's possible. And if someone's extremely weak minded, I suppose being surrounded by 'women' who look like Rosie O'Donnell might make them go queer, if he didn't start out that way. For the rest of us it would just make us really ticked off all the time.
On FR the other day somebody said that we're now at the awkward stage where we can't work withing the system but it's too early to shoot people.
It's always a good plan to leave it in the holster. Once it comes out of the holster, life takes on a whole new dimension.
I vote for 'working harder' within the system, and gritting our teeth during the rough spots.
The insane thing is that large mammals like this (and whales, lions, tigers, dolphins, etc.) are kept in captivity and certain zoos and companies are essentially given monopolies to do so by governments. These animals suffer, die at a young age, and do not represent the real animal behavior (they are like the original with mental and physical disabilities, only they were deliberately made that way by people). They maim and kill their "expert" caretakers with amazing frequency. One picture or a day at the zoo does not tell the entire story.
I am all for allowing people to do whatever they want, and I am a conservative. But wanting to save this "cute" cub is not a logical conservaative view. What do you think would happen if I tried to start my own neighborhood polar bear viewing business? No way I could get approval. Here is how it would have to work: I would have to illegally capture the animal, then have enough money to pay off the government in order to continue my business. That's how it has worked historically. Large animals like this are unhealthy and miserable in captivity. I have seen it, and anyone can research the history and the facts.
The cub should not be killed, but it should not be there. It is not a cute cartoon. It will grow and want to roam, become bored, pace in the small area (really a prison), never have a chance to act naturally. One day a zookeeper who thinks like most people posting on this board will think they can pet it like their cat or dog; because, of course they think they have developed a special relationship with the animal (only them). Then the zoo's general manager will be explaining a little later that the zookeeper died as a result of making a procedural mistake.
Animals become extinct. It happens all the time. People will become extinct one day. That doesn't mean we have to create zoos to keep a "copy" because they are cute. They generate revenue.....that was the only reason they were captured originally and the only reason they are treated as well as they are now. They are still treated poorly at best overall in every zoo - even the best in the world. They are treated poorly because they are not kept for any legitimate environmental or even scientific cause, but to make money.
You feel the need to tell us that you're 'a conservative' (something a true conservative would never need to do in this way because it shows in the values behind what we say) but then you march down the traditional Leftist laundry list of afflictions such as your hatred of 'corporations' and profit, while citing points that have no basis in fact and ignore the circumstance of the situation as presented in the article. You remind me of so many Leftists who call in to talk radio shows and proclaim themselves as being "a conservative" and then proceed to say things indistinguishable from the generic street-corner ranting Marxist.
If you in the 'animal rights' fringe are interested in winning the hearts and minds of mainstream, normal and sane people, you will need to educate yourselves to a considerably higher degree on the the subjects upon which you pontificate; but then if you did that you would quickly realize the innumerable flaws of the 'animal rights' (anti-human / anti-capitalist) movement and would leave it posthaste.
Welcome to Free Republic.
I heartily agree.
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"Admin Moderator maneuvering Troll Welcoming Gift into position"
LOL! Welcome aboard, sucker!
Troll spotted at post #67
(I'm hoping that the Mods won't pull the whole thread over the presence of one Troll)
Prove it
Too bad this animal rights nitwit's Mother didn't abandon him!
hehe! Perhaps it could be said that he was abandoned in a sense, in that he obviously didn't receive any sort of reality-based grounding that a competent mother would normally provide.
His crime...Mild Type A Hemophilia!
I hope they raise this wonderful bear to adulthood, and then throw all activists into his habitat.
Although I applaud your sentiments, I question the nutritional value of a scrawny, hysterical and unwashed Marxist. My goal would be to take good care of this fine bear, and part of that would be insuring a proper diet. The food value of Leftists is probably an area that deserves more study :-)
Your post reminds me of the event which occurred, I think, sometime last year, in which a husband and wife decided that they would give a birthday cake to a group of chimpanzees (or some other largish monkey) in an enclosed cage at a zoo or sanctuary. They were let into the cage with the primates and were summarily attacked and horribly mutilated by these apes who didn't understand the mental derangement (animal rights zealotry) that the husband and wife were suffering from. It was all over the press and I seem to recall at least one FR thread devoted to it.
You sound like this guy:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1793746/posts
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