Should Cub Have Been Left to Die?
Animal rights activist Frank Albrecht said
a polar bear cub should have been left to die
since it was abandoned by its mother.
Posted on 03/21/2007 11:21:51 AM PDT by yankeedame
Updated:2007-03-21 02:13:09
By JOSH WARD
AP
BERLIN (March 21) - Berlin Zoo's abandoned polar bear cub Knut looks cute, cuddly and has become a front-page media darling, but an animal rights activist insisted Monday he would have been better off dead than raised by humans.
Should Cub Have Been Left to Die?
Animal rights activist Frank Albrecht said
a polar bear cub should have been left to die
since it was abandoned by its mother.
"Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws," animal rights activist Frank Albrecht was quoted as saying by the mass-circulation Bild daily, which has featured regular 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.
The story prompted quick condemnations from the zoo, politicians and other animal rights groups.
"The killing of an animal has nothing to do with animal protection," said Wolfgang Apel, head of the German Federation for the Protection of Animals.
Greens politician Undine Kurth called the suggestion "fully unacceptable." Petra Pau of the opposition Left Party invoked the widely-reported case of an Italian bear dubbed "Bruno" who wandered last year into southern Germany, only to be killed by hunters at the behest of local authorities worried about residents and livestock.
"Berlin is not Bavaria, therefore it will be better for Knut than Bruno," Pau said.
Albrecht told The Associated Press his beliefs were more nuanced than reported by Bild, though he applauded the debate the article had started.
He explained that though he thought it was wrong of the zoo to have saved the cub's life, now that the bear can live on his own, it would be equally wrong to kill him.
"If a polar bear mother rejected the baby, then I believe the zoo must follow the instincts of nature," Albrecht said. "In the wild, it would have been left to die."
The German animal rights organization "Four Paws" argued along similar lines, saying it would not be right to punish the cub for a bad decision made by the zoo.
Other activists have also argued 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.
Albrecht cited 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 Knut belongs to the Berlin Zoo, and their veterinarian Andre Schuele, charged with caring for him, 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 star-photographer Annie 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.
Bizarre. Who says a wild animal is of any less value if it's raised in captivity, domesticated, or whatever? What are the underlying beliefs? Humans taint everything they touch and the polar bear is better off dead?
Uh, yeah..."If you really care about that bear's rights you'll kill it." Am I missing something here?
Animal rights activist Frank Albrecht should be challenged to practice what he preaches and be given the opportunity kill this bear himself on on a national TV broadcast.
The only living creatures that the lefties are against killing are convicted murders, rapists or child molesters.
I say, we put Albrecht to sleep instead. >;oD
Should cub be left to die? Ummm. . . no. Where do these people come from?
You must inconvenience yourself and change the way you live because global warming is threatening the existence of polar bears, but we're going to snuff this one out as a matter of convenience.
I think they should do it on live TV. I would have the studio filled with children.
This is what animal activists want us to do, so we want you to see it!
"BOOOOM!" The animal activist movement will be over in the blink of an eye. People with pitchforks and torches will hunt them from coast to coast like villagers hunting Frankenstein!!
It's much worse than that, Joe: Mr. Albrecht wants the cub snuffed out as a matter of ideological purity.
Clearly then, Sir, we should leave you out on an ice flow.
(lunatics)
[NIT]
That would be "Frankenstein's Monster", as the doctor who created him was Frankenstein.
[/NIT]
It only makes sense. If you hate the creator, you will hate creation.
No Bill, you aren't. You must be a moonbat to understand moonbat "logic". Be glad you're missing the point!!! lol.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
&^$^&*()*_9=^&^5#5....had to. I am just sick of these people.
Everyone here is complaining about these nut-job animal rights people, and rightly so. But we have all played into their plans for publicity. They just want media attention and, maybe attact a few loose nuts into their bowls. The best thing to do is just ignore them.
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