Lea Schmitz, spokeswoman for Deutscher Tierschutzbund, a German animal welfare association, rejected the notion that zoos in the country were at the point of having starving animals.
CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE: The polar bear would be the last to go. So says a Neumunster Zoo in northern Germany, which drew up a startling contingency plan if the financial strain caused by the government-ordered shutdown because of the coronavirus outbreak did not ease up soon… The zoo, has about 700 animals over 24 hectares… The drastic proposal appeared to be an attempt not only to call attention to its dire financial situation but also to lay out a blueprint to keep some of its precious attractions during a pandemic the likes of which has not been seen in modern memory… The zoo, which before the lockdown drew about 150,000 visitors annually, had relied on paying customers to stay open, But that revenue stream dried up when it had to close March 15 because of the national shutdown…
Some zoos have been known to cull healthy animals to prevent inbreeding, and nature preserves occasionally have open hunting season to thin herds. Slaughter some zoo animals and feed them to others… “If — and this is really the worst, worst case of all — if I no longer have any money to buy feed, or if it should happen that my feed supplier is no longer able to deliver due to new restrictions, then I would slaughter animals to feed other animals,” the director, Verena Kaspari, was quoted as saying… It also said that a prized polar bear named Vitus, called the largest polar bear in Germany and standing nearly 12 feet tall, would be spared until it was the last animal standing…
While acknowledging the difficult situation that zoos face during the lockdown, Lea Schmitz, a spokeswoman for Deutscher Tierschutzbund, a German animal welfare association, rejected the notion that zoos in the country were at the point of having starving animals. “Zoos bear the responsibility for their animals — even in times of crisis,” Schmitz said by phone. “Instead of conjuring up horror scenarios, the Neumünster Zoo should do everything possible to get its animals through this crisis with its own financial reserves, if those are available, government aid or other public funds.”
Despite the eye-popping plan, the Neumünster zoo isn’t alone in shocking the public’s sensibilities with proposals to cull healthy animals. In 2015, a zoo in Odense, Denmark, the country’s third-largest city, put to death a female lion after seeking in vain to find her another home. It publicly dissected the corpse of the 9-month-old animal in front of an audience — including children. Another Danish zoo, in Copenhagen, previously sparked worldwide outrage when it killed a 2-year-old giraffe named Marius — ostensibly to reduce the risk of inbreeding — before dissecting him and feeding him to lions. SOURCE…
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