An article in today's New York Times mostly compares American preference for contraception to European preference for euthanasia: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/03/s...ption-and-euthanasia-for-animals.html?_r=1&hp
That's a little simplistic--in reality only a few European countries embrace euthanasia as a standard zoo population management tool (Denmark, Sweden and Holland), while others have strong cultural and/or legal restrictions regarding such methods. It's really interesting where the "lines" get drawn. How many thousands of warm and fuzzy rats, mice and guinea pigs are bred in zoos only to be killed and served up as snake or serval supper? I doubt there would be much of an outcry, even if the public were fully aware of this. But try something similar with a deer....or a leopard....and watch the outrage mount.
