Copenhagen Zoo leaves public asking questions

        The Copenhagen Zoo has caused an uproar with recent slaughterings of their animals. In addition to the Giraffe that was killed, the Zoo has now killed two adult lions and two cubs. When the Giraffe was slaughtered, the inhumane act occurred in front of young children, in order to "educate" them about population control and was followed with a public dissection of the body for educational purposes. Sadly afterwards Giraffe was fed to the lions. BBC

"It's a necessary part of keeping a healthy population," he shrugs. "Because we don't bring in animals from the wild any more, we need to do this." The Guardian

            The Zoo's explanation for the slaughter of four lions was centered around "saving the strong pride" that was currently at the Zoo. Martin, zookeeper at Copenhagen explained that the male lion would have killed the two cubs and the immature males in order to prove his power over the pride.

"This may, of course, seem harsh, but in nature it is necessary to ensure a strong pride of lions with the greatest chance of survival," Martin explained 

In the interview with employees at the Copenhagen Zoo conducted by The Guardian, they attempt to defend their actions. They claim that they "tried" to find a place for the lions to go, but in the end they never found one... which is baffling. Towards the end of the interview the employees become extremely accusatory to the public that is upset with the slaughters stating that "the meet you buy in the supermarket used to be a living animal"...and that the public has "disney-fied the animal world and that these animals have a life expectancy"... but what I can't wrap my head around is, did the baby lion cubs reach their life expectancy just as babies? Was there really no place for those babies to go? From the interview, the employees and obviously in a panic, coming up with many excuses for what they did, and limited reasoning for not being able to relocate them rather than kill them. 

       It is heartbreaking to research all of the global efforts and improvement to stop the poaching of wild animals - then to read about the slaughter of these same animals where they are supposed to be safe. In argument with the employees claiming the public does not have the education to understand why they had to kill these animals - that is not the publics argument. The public is left questioning, why could we not find another home for these animals? It is hard to believe there was truly no where for them to go. Countless Zoo's and sanctuaries around the world could have been contacted.