It's time to put zookeepers down for good!

The Copenhagen zoo chose to execute a healthy two-year-old Giraffe in front of elementary school students, and dismember the animal and feed it to captive lions, because the doomed giraffe's genes weren't right. Uh huh.

Those who really know the horrors committed on captive wildlife by zoos, mostly in the pursuit of profit, have been arguing that there's nothing moral or educational in the continued life imprisonment of wild animals, including seals, dolphins and whales like those at SeaWorld, or the two-year old giraffe in the following story:

http://news.yahoo.com/danish-zoo-kills-giraffe-prevent-inbreeding-143907726.html

When you go to a zoo and view a tiger in a small confinement area, you are not seeing a wild tiger. You're seeing a prisoner. Think of using a human in a prison cell, to explain to aliens that these are what humans are like. It's the same deal.

You want to know what real wild tigers are like? There are documentary films that took years to make which detail virtually every activity of wild tigers. Watch the film, you will learn -- truly learn -- how wild tigers survive, mate, raise young and exist in nature.

Go to a zoo and you generally see a tiger lying down, bored to death, or pacing back and forth, driven mad by boredom.

Zoos make money by selling tickets, and they make considerably more money through breeding programs that allow them to sell animals to other zoos, circuses, etc., including "sport hunting" ranches where you can spend big bucks to shoot a Cape Buffalo in a corral.

There is literally no important science done by zoos -- other than the kind of science which aids their breeding programs in pursuit of sale profits.

Screw Amerika Inc and all its Zoos!!

I eat meat. I have a leather belt. I hunt. I have been to the San Diego zoo and Brookfield Zoo and have seen animals in better conditions than I saw as a kid. I think zoos serve a purpose, but agree that abuses must be addressed. I do not think using an animal at the zoo to feed a predator is necessarily an abuse, and certainly using a bolt in the head in front of school age children is entirely inappropriate.

Agreed... I don't like the conditions that much of the livestock are kept or the supplements they are given.

I've quit buying meat in grocery stores. It's a bit more expensive... but much better tasting.

2seaoat wrote:I eat meat.  I have a leather belt.  I hunt.  I have been to the San Diego zoo and Brookfield Zoo and have seen animals in better conditions than I saw as a kid.  I think zoos serve a purpose, but agree that abuses must be addressed.  I do not think using an animal at the zoo to feed a predator is necessarily an abuse, and certainly using a bolt in the head in front of school age children is entirely inappropriate.

I've hunted since I was 9 years of age -- elk, bear, bobcat, coyotes, deer, antelope, geese, ducks, pheasants and quail. All of which has absolutely nothing to do with this story or its significance.

You write: "I think zoos serve a purpose .." Really? If you want to show a child what a big animal looks like, show them a bull or a cow or a horse. Seeing wild animals imprisoned in cages or display areas does nothing for the animals or the kids who view them. Kids make fun of the monkeys and other primates, etc. They learn nothing at zoos -- nothing of value. Ditto for kids at circuses or wild animal parks and Sea-World type venues.

You can't justify how whales are collected, or confined on educational or scientific grounds. And the bizarre tragedies when Orcas attack and kill their trainers is perfect corroboration of my thrust here. The facts are, the whales, elephants, and other large and dangerous animals displayed for cash, are nothing more than animals being exploited for cash.

Justify that if you can ...

I think zoos have a function...it depends to me on how the animals got there. Were they threatened in their environment? Were they someone's discarded pets? I hope this story isn't true...if so, whoever fed the giraffe to the lions should be immediately fired.

The facts are, the whales, elephants, and other large and dangerous animals displayed for cash, are nothing more than animals being exploited for cash.

Justify that if you can ...

So is the American prison for profit system

http://news.msn.com/world/tiger-evades-hunters-kills-10th-victim-in-india

The reality is that many of these animals will be extinct or near extinction in thirty years. A tiger in the wild killing humans will result in an over reaction like what happen to our wolf populations. I think there is now a good tension between those folks who want to protect animals and those folks who run zoos who often are just looking at the bottom line. As these species face extinction and preservation becomes first and foremost......zoos serve a function.

2seaoat wrote:http://news.msn.com/world/tiger-evades-hunters-kills-10th-victim-in-india

The reality is that many of these animals will be extinct or near extinction in thirty years.  A tiger in the wild killing humans will result in an over reaction like what happen to our wolf populations.  I think there is now a good tension between those folks who want to protect animals and those folks who run zoos who often are just looking at the bottom line.  As these species face extinction and preservation becomes first and foremost......zoos serve a function.

Thus far, in the illustrious history of zoos pretending to protect species which are nearing extinction in nature, not a single animal has been returned to the wild. Not one.

And Giraffes are NOT on the endangered species list.

I find nothing wrong or immoral in zoos doing all they can to truly preserve endangered species for eventual reintroduction to natural habitat. But this case in Copenhagen, according to that zoo's director (interviewed on Public Radio this afternoon) was simply an effort by the zoo to not waste money or time keeping this particular giraffe alive because its genes were deemed unproductive to European overall giraffe breeding programs -- which are designed to provide zoo giraffes -- sometimes free, sometimes in trade for other animals to be exhibited, and sometimes for cash -- including sales to circuses and other exploited venues.

Reality!

The director of the Copenhagen zoo who authorized the killing of Marius, a healthy two-year-old giraffe because of the animal's genes not being productive for the European Zoo Associations breeding program, did not explain why the elimination of this animal wasn't accomplished when it was a new born infant, instead of waiting till it was grown, since its genes were then exactly the same as they were two days ago, when it was killed to save space and care costs. Considerable feeding and care costs could have been avoided, and space would have been available for the zoo's ongoing scientific, species-saving breeding programs. Seic Heil!

A movement has now started online with a petition to see Mr. Horst, the zoo director fired.

I was hoping for something a little more drastic -- like inviting school children and other guests to view Horst eating his last meal, then having an airbolt gun applied to his head, and then his autopsy -- (I predict they would not find his heart) -- and lastly, his dismemberment and feeding to caged rats.

Think how much expense could be saved, along with needed space, by Mr. Horst's demise.

Reality.