Danish animal welfare group backs zoo's giraffe killing
Denmark's largest animal welfare charity said Tuesday it supported a Copenhagen zoo's decision to kill a healthy giraffe and feed it to lions in front of children.
"We trust that the very well educated experts at Copenhagen Zoo have explored the possibilities of placing the giraffe in another zoo," said Tina Engberg, the spokeswoman for Dyrens Beskyttelse, a group that runs animal shelters and wildlife care centres across the country.
"A lot of zoos have extensive breeding programmes and contribute greatly to knowledge dissemination," she added.
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The zoo has said it had no choice other than to prevent the animal attaining adulthood, since under European Association of Zoos and Aquaria rules, inbreeding between giraffes is to be avoided.
The Yorkshire Wildlife Park said it was "saddened" to hear that the animal had been killed, after contacting the Copenhagen zoo on Saturday to adopt Marius.
But the Danish zoo turned down the offer, saying the wildlife park should give its space to a "genetically more important" giraffe.
http://www.france24.com/en/20140211-danish-animal-welfare-group-backs-zoos-giraffe-killing/