|
Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters
|
|
Second giraffe named Marius at risk of being put down in Denmark Wednesday, February 12, 2014 Lars Eriksen, theguardian.com If you are a giraffe and your name is Marius, now might be a good time to leave Denmark. Days after the euthanasia of a healthy young giraffe at Copenhagen zoo sparked controversy around the world, a second Danish zoo has announced that it is considering a similar fate for another giraffe – also named Marius. Jyllands Park zoo, in western Denmark, currently has two male giraffes, but has been approved to participate in the European breeding programme. If zookeepers manage to acquire a female giraffe, seven-year-old Marius will have to make way. Like his namesake in Copenhagen, the giraffe is considered unsuitable for breeding, and the zoo said there was a high risk that Marius would have to be put down as it would be difficult to find him a new home. Janni Løjtved Poulsen, zookeeper at Jyllands Park, said it was not clear when the park would acquire a female giraffe and that the decision on Marius's future would be taken by the breeding programme co-ordinator. "If we are told we have to euthanise [Marius] we would of course do that," said Poulsen. She said the park managers would not to be influenced by the wave of protests that followed the killing of 18-month-old Marius at Copenhagen zoo. More than 27,000 people around the world signed a petition to save the Copenhagen giraffe, and zoo officials said they had received death threats after the animal was put down, dissected in front of a large crowd and fed to lions. "It doesn't affect us in any way. We are completely behind Copenhagen and would have done the same," said Poulsen. Jyllands Park zoo has not decided whether they would also carry out a public dissection. Poulsen said she had been surprised to discover there was a second giraffe named Marius in Denmark. The Jyllands Park giraffe had been named after a former vet at the zoo, she said. "We thought it was amusing that there was another Marius among the giraffes when there aren't that many giraffes in Denmark overall." Copenhagen zoo's scientific director, Bengt Holst, said their animals were not given names in order to avoid any personification. "The zoo keepers sometimes call the animals names, and then our guests have heard the name Marius, and that has then become the individual Marius," Holst told Denmark's Radio. "But in no way is it an official name it has been given." Comment: If animals aren’t named, there’s less likelihood of a personal attachment or an emotional connection to that being. We have justified our treatment of non-human species as resources to be used to benefit ourselves. It’s morally reprehensible and no matter how it’s explained, you cannot turn an inherent wrong into a right. Second giraffe facing death in Danish zoo spared (update) Saturday, February 15, 2014 Telegraph.co.uk A second giraffe facing possible execution at a Danish zoo appeared to have been spared on Friday after the zoo said it had no plans to put it down. Jyllands Park Zoo had reportedly said it might kill Marius – coincidentally the same name as a giraffe killed by Copenhagen zoo – because it was to have received a female giraffe replacement. But the zoo announced on Facebook on Friday night that it would keep the animal, and denied ever having planned to end the animal's life. "The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) have announced that Jyllands Park Zoo is not to receive a female giraffe any time soon as part of the programme," the statement said. "As a result of this we will of course keep both our giraffes, as we have stated all along. There is no plan, and there has never been a plan to neither move or euthanise any of our giraffes. "The media stories are only based on a hypothetical situation, which we have answered questions about. This situation now seems to be eliminated." Earlier on Friday the giraffe had received an unlikely lifeline after the president of Chechnya, the troubled Russian republic, offered to home the animal. The intervention from Chechnya’s strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov came just days after a Copenhagen zoo sparked global outrage by putting down a healthy giraffe named Marius. The animal was subsequently skinned and dissected in front of visitors, many of them children, and its meat fed to lions, prompting death threats to the zoo’s scientific director. On Thursday, a second Danish zoo in the town of Herning said it may do the same thing to a giraffe with the same name. “I am ready to accept Marius out of humanitarian concerns,” Mr Kadyrov wrote on his Instagram account, adding that they could “guarantee to him good conditions and health care” and that he wanted to avoid another “bloody show.” A celebrity US zookeeper had also begun efforts to raise $100,000 (£60,000) to save the animal. The Jyllands Park Zoo had defended its right to put down the seven-year-old giraffe, saying his genes make him unsuitable for breeding, before the apparent U-turn. Legally Brief: No Zoo Animal is “Surplus” February 13, 2014 by Stephen Wells, ALDF Executive Director This week, animal advocates around the world were horrified to learn of a Danish zoo that slaughtered a giraffe and then fed him to lions in front of children. The perfectly healthy, two-year-old giraffe, named Marius, was killed Sunday according to a Copenhagen Zoo spokesperson because he was considered surplus and his genes were already well-represented in worldwide captive giraffe populations—despite a petition begging for his life signed by tens of thousands of people, an offer from a private citizen of nearly $700,000 to spare his life, and offers from the Yorkshire Wildlife Park (which houses Marius’ brother) and a zoo in northern Sweden to take him. The Copenhagen zoo also considered the killing of Marius to be an educational opportunity. Stunned spectators, including children, were invited to witness Marius’ death and the feeding of his body to lions. A zoo spokesperson is reportedly “proud” of the event for the anatomy lesson it gave children, according to the Associated Press. But what it teaches children should give us all pause. By slaughtering Marius, the Copenhagen Zoo demonstrated apathy for Marius’ life and his individuality. It illustrates the common viewpoint of zoos (and most wildlife “management” agencies) that individual wild animals, whether captive or free-roaming, are not deserving of consideration as individuals—only “populations” matter. And it highlights how this view translates into a lack of concern for the well-being of animals in zoos or other captive environments. No wonder then that life in most zoos consists of being displayed in unnatural and often immeasurably depressing, crowded concrete enclosures, separated from family members and thwarted from most natural behaviors. Marius’ life held so little value to his captors that his public execution was just another spectacle. That’s really what children learn from zoos, that wild animals’ lives don’t really matter. The killing of Marius is as awful a lesson for children, and an indictment of the culture within zoos. Related news: Edinburgh Zoo kills rare piglets; Copenhagen Zoo executes young giraffe deemed ‘surplus’; follows up by destroying 4 lions Animal rights, and the recognition of animals as sentient beings, has become an important social, legal, and moral one. |