A zoo in Denmark might euthanize one its giraffes, media reported Thursday, days after another Danish zoo slaughtered an ‘unwanted’ giraffe and fed its carcass to the lions.
Jyllands Park Zoo in western Denmark might put down its seven-year-old Marius if the zoo manages to acquire a female giraffe, zoo keeper Janni Lojtved Poulsen told a local news agency.
"We can't have two males and one female. Then there will be fights," Poulsen said.
Staff at Copenhagen Zoo received death threats after it killed an 18-month-old healthy male giraffe - coincidentally also called Marius - because the animal's genes were already well represented in an international breeding program.
Poulsen said that it might be possible to find another place for the giraffe to live, but that the probability is small. Like its namesake in Copenhagen, Jyllands Park Zoo's Marius is considered unsuitable for breeding.
"If the breeding programme coordinator decides that he should be put down, then that's what we'll do," Poulsen said.
She said that zoos in Denmark have been killing surplus animals for many years, and that the wave of protests following Sunday's killing in Copenhagen is not deterring Jyllands Park Zoo.
"Many places abroad where they do not do this, the animals live under poor conditions, and they are not allowed to breed either. We don't think that's ok," she said.
The giraffe at Copenhagen Zoo was dissected in front of crowds at the zoo, and afterwards, some of the carcass was then fed to other zoo animals and some was sent to research projects in Denmark and abroad for study.
Poulsen said Jyllands Park Zoo has not yet considered whether it should carry out a public dissection as the one in Copenhagen.