They're Killing Healthy Animals in Denmark Again

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http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/26/world/europe/copenhagen-zoo-lions/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

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Type: Question • Score: 14 • Views: 4,518 • Replies: 79

[+4] - saab - 03/27/2014I do not understand either why not plan ahead - only have more new ones when there is space. I think Copenhagen Zoo has to rethink a bit.
[+3] - Brandon9000 - 03/26/2014They're not killing them to produce meat to feed people. They're killing them because their lives are an inconvenience. They do have alternatives, such as relocating them to other zoos over time,...
[+3] - farmerman - 03/27/2014True dat. My biggest concern is that the giraffe killing and butchering was done in unsanitary conditions with some expectation of "education". I found that argument disingenuous...
[+3] - saab - 03/27/2014Why did the Copenhagen Zoo kill four lions? They had gotten or will get a new stronger male lion, which with great probality will kill the old male lion. There are two strong female lions who can...
[+3] - farmerman - 03/27/2014No need to be nasty, you know what I said , [as in "its probably (entirely) a Eurocentric thing"]. Embrace it if you like, I just think its a dumb practice.
[+3] - maxdancona - 03/27/2014[quote]Western nations don't place the value of any human life above the life of another species. America certainly doesn't.If it did we wouldn't have American farmers in California being crippled...
[+3] - Brandon9000 - 03/28/2014[quote="Thomas"] [quote="Brandon9000"]They're not killing them to produce meat to feed people. They're killing them because their lives are an inconvenience. [/quote] That's...
[+3] - farmerman - 03/28/2014[quote] To whom or what do you think it makes a difference --- the pigs and cows? I don't think they know about the difference, nor that they would care if they knew it....

@Brandon9000,

Brandon9000 wrote:

They're Killing Healthy Animals in Denmark Again

They're killing millions of healthy animals all over the world on a daily basis. It's called "meat production". If there is something wrong with what they do in the Copenhagen Zoo, meat production is a far more severe ethical problem. If not, I don't see anything wrong with the zoo doing it in the open --- as long as it adequately warns people who don't want to see it.

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

What about the killing of healthy humans? Where is that placed in the pantheon of ethical issues?

Killing of healthy animals for food to feed people is good. Killing of the healthy animals just for sport - not so good.

However, when it comes to zoos and how humanely they take care of their animals, I'd like to think they could've found a better solution by shipping out those lions to another zoo or a more humane way of taking care to keep the lions alive.

As for giraffes, they're far more fragile and shipping them around is very risky, I understand. I think zoos being allowed to have giraffes at all should be far more restricted.

However, it shocks me that those zookeepers (and veterinarian) dismembered the giraffe in front of an audience and, especially so, in front of children. What stupidity!

1 Reply

I'm writing my letter and I'm figuring out how to boycott a Danish product.

This is so stupid. Why not just butchering a superfluous wild animal from their collection and hold a fund raising BBQ. Anybody got a spare young eland shallow-ing out the ol' gene pool you'd like to capitalize on by culling?

1 Reply

@Ragman,

Ragman wrote:

However, it shocks me that those zookeepers (and veterinarian) dismembered the giraffe in front of an audience and, especially so, in front of children. What stupidity!

What's stupid and shocking about it? Nobody had to watch it.

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@Thomas,

Then why not have public hangings, in that case?

It is a public zoo..meant for public observation and consumption. Would you have wanted your children watching that slaughter?

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@Ragman,

There is a difference between killing humans (I assume that is what you meant by public hangings) and killing animals.

I wonder if they are going to feed these lions to the remaining giraffes. That would not only be justice, it would be a very nice circle of life thing.

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@Ragman,

What slaughter? dismemberment of a dead animal is not slaughter.

In any case, I'm in agreement with Thomas on this, especially after reading the linked article.

I don't approve of zoos to begin with and haven't been to one in about 30 years now but I don't see that they've done anything more dreadful than being a zoo to begin with.

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@Ragman,

Ragman wrote:

Then why not have public hangings, in that case?

Because Denmark is a more civilized country than the US: Capital punishment is unconstitutional there. (Actually, I believe hangings are unconstitutional in the US, too. They're cruel and unusual.) My rule of thumb is, if there's nothing wrong with doing it, there's nothing wrong with showing it to an audience that wants to see it. In the case of hangings, what's wrong with showing them in public is doing them in the first place.

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@Thomas,

Sign posted at the front of Danish zoo: "Nature Show today: Giraffe slaughter - presentation at 9 AM, one time only. Children under 12 will be placed in the front for proper viewing. Giraffe burgers at noon, 2 burger limit per customer."

If that is an example that passes for high civilization in your estimation, your values are farked!

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They're not killing them to produce meat to feed people. They're killing them because their lives are an inconvenience. They do have alternatives, such as relocating them to other zoos over time, but they are unwilling to make the effort. It's about the same as killing your cat or dog because you're moving and don't want to worry about transporting it with you. People who have empathy don't have to ponder what's wrong with it.

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@Ragman,

Ragman wrote:

It is a public zoo..meant for public observation and consumption. Would you have wanted your children watching that slaughter?

No I wouldn't, and there would have been an easy way to avoid it: Notice the signs that "there will a lion culling at 12 pm tomorrow", and go to the lion's cage with my child at 12 pm tomorrow. Besides, nothing in CNN's article suggests that this culling was public.

I'm seriously considering starting a thread that "They're Killing Healthy Humans in Texas Again". Someone isn't having their priorities straight.

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@Thomas,

And...that was the intent of my first comment about priorities about human killing.

Quote:

What about the killing of healthy humans? Where is that placed in the pantheon of ethical issues?

1 Reply

@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

Ragman wrote:
No I wouldn't, and there would have been an easy way to avoid it: Notice the signs that "there will a lion culling at 12 pm tomorrow", and go to the lion's cage with my child at 12 pm tomorrow. Besides, nothing in CNN's article suggests that this culling was public.

I'll assume you can read and comprehend:

"Marius the giraffe was shot by a veterinarian and dismembered in front of an audience that included children, before being fed to the zoo's lions, tigers and leopards."

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

Brandon9000 wrote:

They're not killing them to produce meat to feed people. They're killing them because their lives are an inconvenience.

That's a distinction without a difference. We're not killing meat animals to feed people. We could feed people by giving them corn, oatmeal, and soybeans directly, without passing them through pigs and hens first. The main reason we eat meat is for convenience, not because we have to --- just as our zoos kill lions and giraffes for convenience of gene-pool maintenance.

1 Reply

@Ragman,

Ragman wrote:

And...that was the intent of my first comment about priorities about human killing.

Yes. We agree on this one.

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@Ragman,

Ragman wrote:

I'll assume you can read and comprehend:

"Marius the giraffe was shot by a veterinarian and dismembered in front of an audience that included children, before being fed to the zoo's lions, tigers and leopards."

Yes. And I have no problem with that. If parents want their children to see an animal culling and an autopsy, that is their custodial decision to make.

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"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (Marcellus in Hamlet, Act 1, sc 4)

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@Ragman,

Ive gone through this and I think its a Eurocentric thing. They wouldn't do it in NA zoos because they have genetic targets for populations and , if breeding occurs, the animals are spoken for before they are even delivered.

Apparently Euro zoos are just big "feed lots" where butchering is part of the entertainment .
I too am on the record about this practice as being totally stupid.

4 Replies

@farmerman,

Thanks for your reply. Also, thanks for shedding some light on that being a cultural difference, however, nothing excuses the practice. Eye opener, to say the least.

2 Replies

They're Killing Healthy Animals in Denmark Again

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