Employees at a zoo in Germany which culled 12 baboons and fed a few of their carcasses to the lions say they’ve obtained loss of life threats.
Tiergarten Nuremberg euthanised the wholesome Guinea baboons on the finish of July as a consequence of overcrowding of their enclosure.
Some stays have been used for analysis whereas the remaining have been fed to the zoo’s carnivores.
Plans to kill the baboons have been first introduced final 12 months after the inhabitants exceeded 40, and protestors gathered outdoors the zoo to indicate their outrage.
When the location closed final Tuesday to hold out the cull, a number of activists have been arrested after climbing the fence.
The director of the zoo defended the choice, saying efforts to sterilise and rehome some baboons had failed.
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These are usually not the particular animals concerned. File pics: Reuters
‘The workers are struggling’
He mentioned police are investigating after he and the workers have been despatched loss of life threats.
“The staff are really suffering, sorting out all these bad words, insults and threats,” Dr Encke mentioned.
“The normal threat is ‘we will kill you, and we’ll feed you to the lions’.
“However what is admittedly disgusting is once they say that is worse than Dr Mengele from the Nationwide Socialists, who was some of the merciless individuals in human historical past.
“That is really insulting all the victims of the Second World War and the Nazi regime.”
Josef Mengele was a Nazi officer who carried out lethal experiments on prisoners on the Auschwitz focus camp through the Second World Battle.
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Dr Dag Encke
Zoo animals ‘handled as commodities’
Culling animals and feeding them to predators is not remarkable in zoos.
In 2014, Copenhagen Zoo triggered controversy by euthanizing an 18-month-old male giraffe known as Marius and feeding his physique to the lions.
On the time, the zoo mentioned it was as a consequence of an obligation to keep away from inbreeding.
Dr Mark Jones, a vet and head of coverage at Born Free Basis, a charity which campaigns for animals to be stored within the wild, denounced the apply and mentioned hundreds of wholesome animals are being destroyed by zoos every year.
“It reflects the fact animals in zoos are often treated as commodities that are disposable or replaceable,” he mentioned.
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Marius the giraffe was put down and publicly fed to lions at at Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark. Pic: Keld Navntoft/AFP/Getty
Zoo asks for undesirable pets
Earlier this week, a zoo in Denmark confronted a backlash for asking for undesirable pets to be donated for use as meals for its predators.
In a Fb put up, Aalborg Zoo mentioned it may take smaller stay animals similar to chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs, in addition to horses below 147cm. It mentioned the animals could be euthanised by specifically skilled workers earlier than being fed to carnivores just like the European lynx.
Whereas some individuals supported the scheme, saying they’d donated animals up to now, others are outraged.
“The very idea of a zoo offering to take unwanted pets in order to kill them and feed them to their predators will, I think, horrify most right-minded people,” mentioned Dr Jones.
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Dr Mark Jones
Aalborg Zoo has now closed the put up to feedback and mentioned in a press release: “For many years at Aalborg Zoo, we have fed our carnivores with smaller livestock.
“When protecting carnivores, it’s mandatory to offer them with meat, ideally with fur, bones, and so on., to present them as pure a food plan as attainable.
“Therefore, it makes sense to allow animals that need to be euthanised for various reasons to be of use in this way.
“In Denmark, this apply is widespread, and lots of of our visitors and companions admire the chance to contribute.”
