The Copenhagen Giraffe

I think it is not shocking for some healthy animals to be regarded as food for other animals. It's how nature works.

It raises the question about what zoos are actually for? I don't think they should be regarded as either farms producing their own food for carnivores or as breeding establishments providing animals for research. This decision doesn't sit comfortably with me.

Me neither nightowl If they cannot ensure that inbreeding does not happen then they shouldn't be allowed to breed any animals at all.

They are only using the dead animal for research. There is no cruelty involved.

I was too upset about this yesterday to write about it. To destroy this beautiful young creature is barbaric. No doubt they enjoyed the additional revenue from visitors when he was born (aaah!). But there has to be a solution. Stop breeding in captivity is an obvious way forward but then there would be no cute fluffy baby animals to pull in the visitors. Shameful and

Oh I heard on yesterday's news that he will be fed to the tigers - not research. Will they tell visitors that?

Research as well I think Soutra. The cynic in me is wondering what they have done with his skin.

I agree with you Soutra and am equally outraged. Surely they could have neutered this baby and passed him on to another Zoo. A caring home and no problems with inbreeding! I have a nasty feeling that an excuse for some research is the key here, nothing to do with in breeding as that problem could and often is easily addressed.

I wish I'd never read that article

I think they have been using smaller animals as food for years and years. All those fluffy bunnies having babies in the zoo petting areas - I twigged on years ago! It must be because of coming from a farming family. Zoos try to find homes. If there is no demand, then they become a 'crop'. In just the same way that bullocks become meat. Which will not mean much to anyone who has never had a pet bullock with a long curly fringe that got herded into the lorry with the rest of his friends! Yet I still eat beef.

Me too Aka

In the case of no demand it is more understandable janerowena . In the case of this baby, two other suitable homes had been offered and refused for what? reason. Fears of Inbreeding just won't wash as castration should/could have been an option. I'm sure this little chap drew the crowds as a tiny new born, but sadly his usefulness is now obsolete and the tigers need feeding!! researching what on a dead carcass??! Absolutely disgusting!

The phrase that upset me was "surplus to requirements". Man can be so arrogant - I don't think animals are there just for our "requirements". I am not a sentimental animal lover but we should have some respect for other species. There were plenty of places willing to give it a home.

Why on earth did they perform the autopsy in front of a crowd including small children and what kind of parents would want their children to see it?

God only knows merlotgran! What with the floods and now this, I just despair at what sort of world I am leaving behind for my grandchildren.

Thanks, Ariadne. I have no axe to grind with regard to the Danes, but this act of cold, cruelty shames their nation. The callous manner in which the killing was organised and carried out by the zoo and their director, Bengst Holst, sickened me, as did the public autopsy arrangements . I only hope that concerned Danes will be provoked into taking this outrage up with their authorities, with a view to removing this monstrous individual from his post.

Sadly, the killing of zoo animals is all too common. I recently read a report about a whole family of lions, mum, dad and the cubs, being put down recently at Longleat because they were too aggressive. What the hell are lions supposed to be, cuddly toys?

I'd have thought that neutering would have been reasonable, but maybe the zoo is doing it as a protest to highlight the problem and it has backfired - or has it? It has certainly gained a lot of publicity. I'm not sure about the effect on children, as I saw animals being butchered as a child and just thought of it as a part of life. I should think they will take the lead from their parents. If the parents stay calm, they will be fine.

Besides don't most of the royals in Europe share a common gene pool........???

I wish I hadn't read this or seen the poor little giraffe's photo in the paper. Too distressing for words. Maybe I am stupid, but why were his parents allowed to breed if only to produce a baby who was surplus to requirements?
It seems unnecessarily cruel

Baby giraffe has been killed.

The thing that really upsets me is the fact that that little giraffe would have been tame, trusted his keepers and come over to get his rye cake (or whatever) without any idea that anyone would do him harm.('Dilly, Dilly come and be killed'! comes to mind) What a betrayal of trust, how shameful is that? If he was really such a fly in the breeding ointment, why breed him in the first place? or if you have, why not destroy him at birth? I suppose because he drew the crowds as a pretty baby. Basically his short life was mapped out from day one, used and abused - how shameful is that.

Well said, nigglienelly, the poor little giraffe had almost certainly grown up with and trusted the very people who so cruelly killed him. And as for their heartless director... the whole thing sickens me. I hope that the memory of young Marius haunts the lot of 'em forever! As for Copenhagen zoo? Crossed off my list!

He wasn't cruelly killed. He was humanely killed. Not what would have happened in the wild if lions had hunted him. Giraffe meat is natural lion food.

I don't understand the outrage at all. It just seems like over emotionality to me. Carnivorous zoo animals have to be fed somehow. What better than their natural meat (one variety of it anyhow) from an animal that is inbred so can't be used to breed more and would just be an extra expense to keep. A touch of reality wouldn't go amiss. Killing a giraffe for food is no worse than killing the sort of animals we eat for food. What's important is that he had a good life and a humane death.

He was a baby bags. I don't call 18 months having a good life. As others have said, why the hell was he bred in the first place?