One and a half year old giraffe Marius on February 9, 2014, literally became a world celebrity. However, he never had a chance to find out about this, because on that day he died and the debate about the admissibility of how exactly this death occurred is still ongoing.
Instructions
Step 1
The life of animals in zoos is not always as cloudless as we sometimes would like to believe. Only a small number of them die of old age, having lived happily their animal age. Many of them die from disease, sometimes from melancholy, and some even go to feed the predators in neighboring enclosures. Something similar happened at the Danish zoo with a giraffe named Marius.
Step 2
It all began in 2012, when a giraffe was born as a result of the closely related crossing of two animals in Copenhagen. Whether this happened due to an oversight of the employees or was planned in advance, today it is no longer possible to say. The baby was given the name Marius and he immediately became an object of affection for numerous visitors, primarily children. Many people came to the zoo specifically to look at Marius, but none of them knew that the fate of this spotted creature with thin legs had long been predetermined and he had very little to live.
Step 3
All zoos in Europe are subject to the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums, one of the goals of which is to preserve the genetic purity of captive animals. Since Marius was born as a result of inbreeding (closely related crossbreeding), it was impossible to allow his genetic material to be further disseminated, simply put, he was subjected to culling. To be extremely honest, this procedure is not something unusual, a certain number of culled animals are slaughtered in zoos every day and this is considered normal.
Step 4
The indignation of the world community caused exactly how the young giraffe had to say goodbye to life. Namely, that the attendants of the Danish zoo made a real show out of this event. Visitors and the press were notified in advance, the invitation emphasized that the slaughter scene would be of particular interest to children, who would have the opportunity not only to be present at a rare show, but also to get a kind of lesson in animal anatomy, to find out what a giraffe looks like from the inside. Numerous protests did not have any effect and at the appointed hour Marius was taken out of the corral, showed him a crust of bread, and when he held out his head for a treat, he was killed by a shot from a construction pistol. In conclusion, the carcass of the giraffe was butchered in front of the public and given to be eaten by lions.
Step 5
Despite the worldwide outrage, the Copenhagen zoo attendants still fail to understand the public outrage. According to them, they annually discard from 20 to 30 animals - antelopes, goats or wild boars, but it was the death of a giraffe that caused such a negative resonance. By the way, literally a month later, 4 lions were slaughtered there, the same ones that consumed Marius' meat - 2 old animals and 2 cubs.
