Copehagen Zoo: "I like animals"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENnNNVOEDZ4
EDIT:
As a Dane myself who live near the Copenhagen Zoo, of course I am biased. I am not a nationalistic person, but I do think that the media storm against the Zoo is a perfect example of the media turning normal events into almost-hysterical sensationalistic jibberish. At the same time, the news spread the entire world in a singular outrage, when in fact, this procedure is standard thing to do in all Zoo's. What the media didn't investigate is that the only thing the Copenhagen Zoo does, is being transparant about it.
I personally agree that it is fine to kill a giraffe if you don't have room for it, just like I think it's fine to eat a cow or a chicken and so on. As long as the animal is not suffering I have no problem with that at all. What I do have a problem with is when people tell them to just let someone else take these animals, without regard of their wellfare. Millions of animals are in captivity under horrible conditions in unregulated zoos. Some gets sold into circuses, some gets inbred, many dont get the proper nutrition it needs. The Danish Zoo in copenhagen is part of a selective breeding program to control and maintain a healthy population for the animals. No Zoo that lived up to these regulations in the breeding program had any room for an extra giraffe. They are expensive animals to maintain.
Thirdly, I too find it cruel when people suggest to castrate them and keep them from having sex. It's a big part of an animals life to be allowed to breed and it adds to it's natural well being. So not giving them the right to breed seems wrong.
Overall I am conflicted about Zoos. I acknowledge they have made a massive difference in the preservation and saving of many species that have been extinct. It's incredible work what they are doing in some Zoos in China with Pandas for example. But there are lots of other examples of species that were nearly wiped out, sometimes for disasters not related to human interference that have been brought back thanks to Zoos. Zoos can also help decrease a populations ignorance about animals. If you have ever seen a subdued drugged up Lion Cub in a Iron chain for tourists to pet which people are making fun of them, you can see that a lot of people all over the world lack empathy and understanding of animals.
What I feel though, like most other people I talk too is that Zoo life could be much better if a Zoo worked like a safari wild park, and not closed of prison cages like they are today. I think most people feel like this, but it seems unlikely that the world will ever have Zoos being like this. It would be the prefered way for the well being of the animals as they would have much more space.
