Lion Food

2/10/2014

A zoo in Denmark killed a two year old male giraffe and fed the remains to lions, as visitors, some of whom were children, watched.  How could they have allowed children to watch as the giraffe was cut up to be fed to the lions?  What's wrong with this picture, except just about everything? If they didn't want to be publicly "fed" to the news media and people in general, surely they could have done the deed after the zoo was closed.  It wouldn't have made what they did right, but at least it's likely that nobody would miss the young giraffe  The zoo had received offers from other zoos and a private individual to save the animal.  The genes of the giraffe, named Marius, were too similar to other giraffes in a breeding program run by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).  A young bull could theoretically be sent to an all-female group as stud, but experts prefer a larger, more mature male for that, and Marius didn't fit that bill. Apparently poor Marius didn't measure up to Denmark's stud standards.

A final option would be to send a giraffe to a zoo that doesn't participate in the EAZA-led breeding program.  The Denmark Zoo received two offers from zoos for Maricus and an offer of $680,000 from an individual. Now why an individual would want a giraffe is up for speculation.  Thinking positively perhaps this individual just loves giraffes and wants one for his "backyard".  Or, thinking worst case scenario, intended to use the animal for hunting purposes by hunters.  If the latter were true, then paying $680,000 merely for the sport of hunting, seems like a very expensive purchase for a one-time experience, not to mention the waste of a healthy animal.  But, I've never understood hunting.  If you're going to eat what you kill, I get that.  What I don't understand is the sport of hunting animals just for an adrenalin rush.

If this zoo had too many giraffes, wouldn't it have been easier to just neuter or spay the animals?  Seems to make good sense to me.  In Maryland, they neuter the deer to keep the deer population from getting out of control.  

Apparently the only thing "wrong" with Marius was that his genes were too similar to other giraffes in the breeding program, and that wasn't something he could control.

P.