The Copenhagen Zoo That Killed A Giraffe Last Month Puts Down 4 Healthy Lions
A Danish zoo that faced protests for killing a healthy giraffe to prevent inbreeding says it has put down four lions, including two cubs, to make room for a new male lion.
By Sadho Ram — 27 Mar 2014, 07:10 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
To make way for a new male lion, The Copenhagen Zoo has put down a 16-year-old male lion, a 14-year-old lioness, and two young lions this week
The lions were killed Monday, said Tobias Stenbaek Bro, a spokesman for the Copenhagen Zoo. Two of those were young lions that were not old enough to survive by themselves and would have been killed by the new male lion if it had the chance, Bro told CNN.
cnn.com
He said the zoo had tried to place them elsewhere, "but unfortunately there wasn't any interest." The other two are the youngsters' parents, described by the Copenhagen Zoo as a "very old" breeding pair.
msn.com
A lioness carries one of her two lion cubs, a male and a female, as they are presented to the public for the first time in Copenhagen Zoo on Wednesday, July 17, 2013. The two lion cubs were born on June 6.
Image via nydailynews.comThe new male lion was brought from Givskud Zoo, also in Denmark, to form a breeding group with the Copenhagen Zoo's two 18-month-old females, born on site in 2012
The newcomer is about 3 years old, large for his age and healthy, the zoo said. After he's had a few days to adjust to his new surroundings, visitors will be able to see him.
cnn.com
"He is a beautiful young male and I am certain he will be an impressive ambassador for his species," zoo chief Steffen Straede is quoted as saying. He said the three young lions would "be the foundation of the zoo's next lion era."
msn.com
Citing the "pride's natural structure and behavior," the Copenhagen Zoo said that two old lions had been euthanized as part of a generational shift
"The change in the lion pride had to happen now because Copenhagen Zoo currently has two young females from the 2012 litter and it is ideal to keep these as part of the new pride and then find a suitable male," the zoo wrote in a Wednesday statement on its website.
nationalgeographic.com
The deaths come after Marius the giraffe was dissected in front of crowds and fed to lions last month
Image via independent.co.uk"If the Zoo had not made the change in the pride now then we would have risked that the old male would mate with these two females—his own offspring—and thereby give rise to inbreeding," the statement says.
msn.com
It's the same zoo that earned international condemnation for killing a healthy giraffe last month and dissecting its body parts in front of kids. READ:
The decision by the zoo to shoot dead its giraffe to prevent inbreeding sparked widespread outrage. The killing of four healthy lions has prompted further dismay.
Some questioned why the lions weren't sent elsewhere if the Copenhagen Zoo no longer had space. "Why are people visiting this abhorrent animal slaughter house," said a message posted on a Facebook page that calls for the closure of the zoo.
cnn.com
The 10-month-old lions would have been killed by the new male lion as soon as he got the chance.
Image via nydailynews.comThe European Association of Zoos and Aquaria -- a body governing 345 institutions -- said that the Copenhagen Zoo had not broken its codes of conduct and that it "has been consistent in its approach to animal population management, and high standards of animal welfare." The zoo supports natural cycles of reproduction and cub rearing, it said, and its lions are not part of a breeding program.
mashable.com
"While EAZA regrets the death of the animals in question, we recognize the right of Copenhagen Zoo to humanely cull them in line with their policies," it added. Such culling is not uncommon, although large animals are less likely to meet that fate.
nationalgeographic.com
European Association of Zoos and Aquaria spokesman David Williams-Mitchell told CNN that across the European zoos governed by the body, about 3,000 to 5,000 animals are killed each year under programs to manage zoo populations. This includes "everything from tadpoles and insects up to charismatic megafauna like giraffes and lions," he said, adding that it represents only 0.06% of the zoos' overall animal population.
cnn.comExact figures are hard to come by, but a few hundred of those killed by the zoos each year would be large animals, he said. Williams-Mitchell added that members of the public and animal rights groups tend to object only when zoos kill "cute, storybook animals," rather than rodents or tadpoles.