Giraffe Killed at Copenhagen Zoo; Fed to Lions

[Daltron]

A Danish zoo has sparked outrage as it put down a young giraffe, then chopped it up and fed it to lions as visitors, including young children, looked on. The fate of 18-month-old Marius shocked animal lovers around the world, with thousands signing an online petition to save him and a billionaire offering to buy him and keep him in his Beverly Hills garden.

Copenhagen Zoo said the action was necessary to prevent inbreeding and Marius was put down with a bolt gun after being anaesthetised. A crowd of visitors, including small children, looked on as an autopsy was carried out and the animal skinned and chopped up. Some grimaced while others took photos.

A full-maned lion later tucked into the giraffe's remains in full view of the public.

Full article here.

[Rachel]

Wow.... That is just cruel. I am sure there are other things you can feed the lion with >.> and also infront of kids O.O

[-:Undertaker:-]

The OTT reaction to this is funny.

The animal was put down without harm, it wasn't fed alive to the lions - a choice it would not be granted in the wild. A zoo is a business after all, and if the animals are not needed/have potential problems due to a small breeding population then it makes sense to do such a thing. Sure, it isn't nice to see an animal put down but it isn't nice to see a chicken, a young lamb, a cow or a small piglet put down and turned into meat either. That's nature i'm afraid.

The reason why we have so many crybabys nowadays when it comes to animals being put down and those 'i wont eat anything with a face' people is exactly because children living in urban areas are not taught the reality of nature or rural environments and so they think of anything remotely wild or exotic looking as completely wholesome. It's like with the fox hunting in this country or the badger cull - people in the countryside who actually live there and have hundreds of years of knowledge on how to control foxes/badgers (which are violent pests which attack and kill livestock and damage property) are being lectured by young city hippy kids who don't know a thing about the countryside. All they see is a fox that looks like it would do with a cuddle.

The same applies to western leaders lecturing Africans/South Americans on the killing of elephants/monkeys/crocodiles.... it's a completely different story if you live in an African or South Americans village and the populations of these animals get out of control and end up killing your fellow human beings.

[FlyingJesus]

Yum lucky lions

[Eric]

Wow.... That is just cruel. I am sure there are other things you can feed the lion with >.> and also infront of kids O.O

You do know lions are fed with meat like mutton, beef, horse or chicken, they're killed too. Letting the children watch an autopsy of the giraffe, learning about what lions eat or probably something about the giraffe, the reality of nature and the circle of life look sensible to me

The OTT reaction to this is funny.

The animal was put down without harm, it wasn't fed alive to the lions - a choice it would not be granted in the wild. A zoo is a business after all, and if the animals are not needed/have potential problems due to a small breeding population then it makes sense to do such a thing. Sure, it isn't nice to see an animal put down but it isn't nice to see a chicken, a young lamb, a cow or a small piglet put down and turned into meat either. That's nature i'm afraid.

The reason why we have so many crybabys nowadays when it comes to animals being put down and those 'i wont eat anything with a face' people is exactly because children living in urban areas are not taught the reality of nature or rural environments and so they think of anything remotely wild or exotic looking as completely wholesome. It's like with the fox hunting in this country or the badger cull - people in the countryside who actually live there and have hundreds of years of knowledge on how to control foxes/badgers (which are violent pests which attack and kill livestock and damage property) are being lectured by young city hippy kids who don't know a thing about the countryside. All they see is a fox that looks like it would do with a cuddle.

The same applies to western leaders lecturing Africans/South Americans on the killing of elephants/monkeys/crocodiles.... it's a completely different story if you live in an African or South Americans village and the populations of these animals get out of control and end up killing your fellow human beings.

This. Spot on

People ignore the realities we live in and droning on how it would've been humane to set them free in the wild where the animal would've suffered far worse than death by a bolt gun

[Jordan]

I was shocked when I saw it to be honest. I feel it still could of lived a life just not of been allowed to breed. I did read that a zoo somewhere in England contacted Copenhagen zoo to see about transfering it to them but they ignored them even though the zoo asked for options anyway I think.

[karter]

ok i'm all for empathising with animals but inbreeding depression is serious lol it had to be put down

[Kardan]

The OTT reaction to this is funny.

The animal was put down without harm, it wasn't fed alive to the lions - a choice it would not be granted in the wild. A zoo is a business after all, and if the animals are not needed/have potential problems due to a small breeding population then it makes sense to do such a thing. Sure, it isn't nice to see an animal put down but it isn't nice to see a chicken, a young lamb, a cow or a small piglet put down and turned into meat either. That's nature i'm afraid.

The reason why we have so many crybabys nowadays when it comes to animals being put down and those 'i wont eat anything with a face' people is exactly because children living in urban areas are not taught the reality of nature or rural environments and so they think of anything remotely wild or exotic looking as completely wholesome. It's like with the fox hunting in this country or the badger cull - people in the countryside who actually live there and have hundreds of years of knowledge on how to control foxes/badgers (which are violent pests which attack and kill livestock and damage property) are being lectured by young city hippy kids who don't know a thing about the countryside. All they see is a fox that looks like it would do with a cuddle.

The same applies to western leaders lecturing Africans/South Americans on the killing of elephants/monkeys/crocodiles.... it's a completely different story if you live in an African or South Americans village and the populations of these animals get out of control and end up killing your fellow human beings.

I agree mostly, it's just that so many people offered to take the giraffe, but the zoo preferred to kill it.

[MKR&*42]

I can't understand why the zoo really didn't just give the giraffe to another zoo/person. If the only danger was that inbreeding would happen, moving the giraffe would have effectively solved the problem??

It's a shame I guess, but IDK WHAT TO SAY WITHOUT SOUNDING HARSH ok "that's life".

[Yawn]

i was shocked when i first found out how many animals zoos put down but its not a secret

he was too genetically similar to other giraffes (including the 1 at the british zoo) according to EU regulations so that is y he was put down anyway