Zoo København Marius - Giraffe at Copenhagen

A healthy young giraffe called Marius is due to be killed tomorrow Sunday 9th Feb by bolt gun as he is surplus to requirements at Copenhagen Zoo. Google the name Marius the giraffe to read in more detail. Please sign the petition below to try and persuade the Zoo to spare him. Yorkshire Wildlife Park have apparently offered to take him.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/528/607/193/save-marius-the-giraffe-from-the-bolt-gun-now/

 

Yorkshire Wildlife Park have just posted on their Facebook and Twitter pages that they are trying to get Marius and that he can join their bachelor herd, so it's now up to Copenhagen what they do next. Another good move of compassion - and some potentially great PR - for YWP!

 

YWP already have a giraffe from Copenhagen in their bachelor herd so in my opinion they have no valid reason to turn down this offer. Especially as many animal lovers have stated they would donate towards travel costs etc.

According to a Danish news report the zoo have responded by saying that they do not care about the offer, they kill at least 500 deer a year and nobody cares but because it's a giraffe people go crazy.

I personally think this is horrible and regardless of the animal it is wrong. The zoo needs to be seriously looked at in my opinion if this is how they see fit to operate.

 

Hundreds of animals are killed every year to feed the zoo's carnivores, why is this one any different.

I think if any other place wants to buy this Giraffe, at the price it will cost to buy the meat he will provide, he should be sold not killed.

Conservation is not helped by sentimentally wasting money and resources on genetically unimportant animals.

 

Nor is it helped by stupid PR disasters for next to no gain.

The life of a deer or a cow and the life of a giraffe are not viewed as equivalent in the eyes of the public. It's unfortunate, but that's how it is. They should send the giraffe to Yorkshire and be grateful for the bail-out.

 

Very well said, l could not agree more. I wonder if it will ever become first choice in animal management particularly primates.

 

The scientific director seems to have no understanding of PR, his choice of words have been inflammatory and have done the zoo no favours at all.

 

Indeed, the Danish zoos have a well established policy of euthanasia if and when an individual animal - in this case a giraffe - is surplus to a breeding program - meaning the EEP does not need it and has not found a new location for it -. The Danish general public are well understood with this concept and accept it for what it is .. a valid option in population management. Consequently, saying it is a PR disaster is far from correct.

Further, to state that the well respected scientific director - who has a considerable track record in both ex situ and in situ conservation, is the European ISIS/ZIMS chief representative and a WAZA man - is preposterous and slanderous and knowing him I do take exception to all of that.

Further, this whole sensationalist "article" has been put on by some animal rights activists - a fringe event even in Denmark - and not the general public! If this would happen in the UK, most if not all of us - knowing the full facts - would fall over the PETA and Zoo Check lot and put them back where they should be … a fringe lot.

POST SCRIPTUM: I personally love giraffe very much, but I see not any wrong or wrong-doing in this euthanasia case. Thank you …

 

This story sums up the absurd attitude towards animals held by so many (especially in the UK).

Keeping an animal under humane and enriched conditions, and then ending its life in a stress-free manner, is seen as wrong.

Keeping an animal in barbaric conditions, with little or no enrichment, and then slaughtering it in an industrial manner wherein the stress is, inevitably, high, is seen as acceptable.

The unscientific sentimental approach of the YWP appears to be based wholly on cheap PR, and as such does not further the place's claims to be a "serious" zoo.

 

OrangePerson said somewhere: "For some people on ZooChat animals are just a bag filled with genes."
I still hope this concerns only a minority, as the discussion around Twycross seems to prove something different.

Zooman and Kifaru Bwana, do you think there may be better solutions than culling in the case of just unwanted or elderly animals in the zoo of the future?
I believe the opposition to ideas as mentioned in the quote will be growing even faster in times to come.

 

Well this article indicates that this particular zoo regularly kills off its healthy surplus animals.

Sunshine Recorder

Personally I find their policy and arguement sad and outdated .... time for a rethink

 

Just heard from the BBC Marius was put down this morning.

 

I find it contradictory to say that the general public should become more conservation aware/active and care about animals, then say 'apart from this one - this one doesn't matter'.

Whatever your view on the practice, which I'm sure is much more common than people believe, things like this don't show the zoo world in a good light.

 

This was one of the main stories on the BBC world service last night, personnaly I think it is up to each zoo to do what is best for the animals it manages, but if a home was offered and not taken up it was a poor PR exercise, and the reasons behind it should be explained to the wider public.
I think the naming of wild animals doesn't help either especially if it is thought likely that the individual is surpless to a breeding programme, it creates a "pet" mentality in the sentimental /anthropomorphic animal lover, who very often usually keep one dog at home on it's own all day or a rabbit in a hutch it can't stand up in or burrow or groom other rabbits. but they are loved so that is all that counts.

Sorry for the rant but some people I know shouldn't have pets, regardless of how much they say they "Love" them.

 

I find policy of this zoo a case that should be followed by other zoos. I wish visitors of Czech zoos would be wise enough one day to accept it too. Danmark is so much ahead of us.

While Copenhagen´s agiraffes are alive they get the best care and living conditions possible and live their lives to the fullest, in huge outside pen, living among a big group and rising up offspring frequently, mimicing their pre-programed way of life in the wild. And later, their death is not wasted, it enables the zoo to reject using meat from "industrialy" kept domestic animals. One giraffe saves from suffering at least 3? cows, that would otherwise be separated at birth from their mothers, fed some sort of manufactured pellets, kept in a miniature box in a stall and then transported in cattle car towards slaughterhouse. What is more responsible aproach in regards to animal wellfare?

 

All carnivorans eat meat and that meat is the result of a dead animal. If you're suggesting the primary reason this giraffe was killed was to get the meat, you've either been mislead or you're trying to mislead others. However, if an otherwise healthy ungulate is put to sleep in a zoo, many zoos around the world will use it as food instead of wasting the meat by throwing it out. In many parts of the world the zoos just don't say it publicly (more on that below). In contrast, feeding carnivorans with animals that died naturally is often avoided, as zoos have to be completely sure about the reason of the death; avoiding risk of transmitting a disease.

One of the main arguments for putting him to sleep was the well-being of the captive population; avoiding inbreeding. In the breeding pool, his genes are well represented. People could make arguments for keeping him alive (value of life, feelings, etc), but value as a breeding animal definitely isn't one of them.

Compared to North America, there is a far more liberal approach to the death in zoos in Denmark. Not sensationalistic, but in the sense that death is a part of nature and science. This ranges from necropsies to feeding of carnivorans. For example, it is common for Danish zoos to use entire animal carcasses (head and everything) when feeding their big cats. This is not some strange attempt of macabre entertainment, but simply because it is considered natural. Consequently Danish zoos also seem to be far more open when it comes to informing the public about animal deaths (natural or not) compared to North American.

This is neither the first nor likely to be the last time the zoo will do something like this. In the end, it is a discussion about the benefits of letting an animal breed (behavioral, disease, and maintaining breeding potential) vs. having to put down the offspring because it is a surplus animal.

I doubt this story will cause much of an uproar in Denmark; at most for a day a two. Perhaps the most obvious signs of this are the online petition and a demonstation in front of the zoo earlier today. I just checked the last 2000 signatures - 7 were from Denmark. The demonstration in front of the zoo consisted of c. 15 people.

 

This is at the heart of it, zoos are quick to anthropomorphise the animals eg using Valentine's day to get some cheap publicity talking up a 'romantic' match-up between two animals by an 'online dating service' which is actually just an arrangement decided by the very same breeding programme that deems this animal to be worthless. Then everyone is supposed to be able to remove the rose coloured spectacles, clear away the hearts and flowers and be objective about his destruction.

 

Even worse, some 'Valentines matches' are not even that but just used as temporary 'props' e.g. the Colchester Tiger pair of a year or two ago, which were promoted as such while already planned(I believe) to be split up!

In this case, YWP have been criticised for offering the Giraffe a home, but if they already have one male from this source, why not another? Perfectly rational and perhaps rather surprising that Copenhagen didn't approach them, knowing they had already taken one from them before. (Cost of transport an issue here?) It seems they've resolved the issue in their own way now.

 

That is how nature sees animals.

 

In a way although I don't like what they've done I admire them for having the courage of their convictions and not bowing to the pressure over this animal whilst still fully intending to do it to another animal, possibly less appealing, sooner or later.