Amidst the 20,000 signatures gathered in an online petition, the Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark still euthanized Marius, a two-year old healthy male giraffe and slaughtered its carcass in front of the crowd visitors including children and then fed it to lions.
According to the zoo spokesman Tobias Stenbaek Bro, Marius was killed by a bolt gun, not a lethal injection because this would contaminate the meat. The zoo management acted this due to the recommendation of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) to avoid inbreeding because of the outnumbering giraffes with similar genes in the organization’s breeding program.
Inbreeding is the reproduction from the mating of pairs who are closely related genetically. May result homozygosity which can increase the chances of offspring being affected by recessive or deleterious traits that may generally leads to a decreased fitness of the population.
According to the zoo spokesman Tobias Stenbaek Bro, Marius was killed by a bolt gun, not a lethal injection because this would contaminate the meat. The zoo management acted this due to the recommendation of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) to avoid inbreeding because of the outnumbering giraffes with similar genes in the organization’s breeding program.
Inbreeding is the reproduction from the mating of pairs who are closely related genetically. May result homozygosity which can increase the chances of offspring being affected by recessive or deleterious traits that may generally leads to a decreased fitness of the population.
The carcass of Marius feed to the lions
In a statement released by EAZA, they fully support the decision of the zoo to humanely put the animal down, and believe strongly in the need for genetic and demographic management within populations of animals in human care. They further urges that EAZA's breeding programmes are at the forefront of efforts to safeguard endangered species, and are a key part of the worldwide strategy to prevent the actions of humans from destroying the future of the natural world.
EAZA’s members were merely large zoos in European capitals that are animal lovers and also work to conserve global biodiversity to achieve the highest standard of caring and breeding animals.
EAZA’s members were merely large zoos in European capitals that are animal lovers and also work to conserve global biodiversity to achieve the highest standard of caring and breeding animals.
The zoo also turned down the offers of other zoos to adopt Marius and even refuses an offer from a private individual who wanted to buy the giraffe. As a member of EAZA, Copenhagen Zoo doesn’t own the animals, they just govern them, and therefore they can’t sell them to anyone outside the organization that doesn’t follow the same set of rules.
Marius case is not isolated, thousands of animals were euthanized each year in zoos around the world that promises to take care and protect animals. For some reasons zoo animals were euthanized because of poor health, old age, lack of space or conservation management reasons.
Marius case is not isolated, thousands of animals were euthanized each year in zoos around the world that promises to take care and protect animals. For some reasons zoo animals were euthanized because of poor health, old age, lack of space or conservation management reasons.
Marius, a two-year old healthy male giraffe
The fate of Marius will always prove that zoos and parks that promise to take care and provide shelter for the animals are mere business. An industry that needs to earn profit to continue its function, an industry that is being questioned by the animal rights group since then.
This business is the once I always wanted to go when I was a child, but when my mind has opened up to reality, I’ve realized that it is a business that doesn’t respect life, it isolate and govern life as if they can create and produce it. They created rules of which they are the one benefited by it.
I would personally say to those parents out there, please do not let your children enter any zoo and wildlife parks, including circuses. Instead tell your children that a zoo is a jail wherein innocent lives are convicted for our entertainment for its management’s profit, for businessman who uses the innocent minds of young children. These places will just give you an amusement that came from animal suffering and abuse.
I just hope, one day I will see a world with no life behind bars, humans and animals are equally sharing the same rights and privileges of this world. The right to live peacefully in harmony in their natural habitat.
Animals have feelings, they suffer pain like us, they feel happy like us, they love and care like us, they became parents like us. They live and breathe like us. They need freedom like what we always wanted. But they never ambition things like money and fame like human does.
This business is the once I always wanted to go when I was a child, but when my mind has opened up to reality, I’ve realized that it is a business that doesn’t respect life, it isolate and govern life as if they can create and produce it. They created rules of which they are the one benefited by it.
I would personally say to those parents out there, please do not let your children enter any zoo and wildlife parks, including circuses. Instead tell your children that a zoo is a jail wherein innocent lives are convicted for our entertainment for its management’s profit, for businessman who uses the innocent minds of young children. These places will just give you an amusement that came from animal suffering and abuse.
I just hope, one day I will see a world with no life behind bars, humans and animals are equally sharing the same rights and privileges of this world. The right to live peacefully in harmony in their natural habitat.
Animals have feelings, they suffer pain like us, they feel happy like us, they love and care like us, they became parents like us. They live and breathe like us. They need freedom like what we always wanted. But they never ambition things like money and fame like human does.
Sources:
http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/454445/Danish-zoo-kills-giraffe-to-prevent-inbreeding.html?isap=1&nav=5024
http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/458188/Thousands-of-zoo-animals-killed-in-Europe-yearly.html?isap=1&nav=5024
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26098935
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbreeding
http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/454445/Danish-zoo-kills-giraffe-to-prevent-inbreeding.html?isap=1&nav=5024
http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/458188/Thousands-of-zoo-animals-killed-in-Europe-yearly.html?isap=1&nav=5024
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26098935
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbreeding
