Healthy Giraffe Killed at Danish Zoo “To Stop Inbreeding” And Teach Science

marius

Concerned about carriage horses in the city? Or the state sponsored killing of mute swans reported last week?  Well if you thought that was rotten, get a load of what’s going down in the state of Denmark..

Marius, a healthy two year old giraffe, was shot in the head with a pistol and publicly dissected in front of  young children because the Copenhagen Zoo and an international European zoological agency call it a common practice to stop inbreeding.

The veterinarian gutted the giraffe in full view of elementary school students, seen in the upper left corner of the photo.

“I’m actually proud because I think we have given children a huge understanding of the anatomy of a giraffe that they wouldn’t have had from watching a giraffe in a photo,” zoo spokesman Stenbaek Bro said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.  He also stated the zoo had turned down offers from other zoological parks to take Marius (and not murder him…) and an offer from a private individual who wanted to buy the giraffe for $680,000.

Al Jazeera reports that  the zoo, which now has seven giraffes left, followed the recommendation of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria to put down Marius because there already were too many giraffes with similar genes in the organization’s breeding program.

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email