Marius, a reticulated giraffe at the Copenhagen Zoo, was murdered at only two years old on Sunday by administrators from the zoo. Not only was the innocent and majestic animal hit with a shotgun, but became food for the lions at the zoo right after.
Marius was young and still in very good health. According to the zoo’s website, they killed the giraffe to prevent inbreeding from transferring Marius to another zoo. They claimed there was no place for the helpless animal to stay. What’s even more disturbing is that the zoo performed the graphic task right in front of visiting parents and kids.
Over 30,000 people signed a petition online stating that they did not want Marius to be killed. The New York Times reported that the zoo even received multiple death threats when they refused to allow other zoos to adopt the baby giraffe. One citizen even offered to pay $682,000 to take the 11 foot six giraffe in himself. 11 feet is not even fully-grown. Giraffes typically finish growing around 16 to 18 feet.
It is extremely upsetting that zoos use the option of murder when they run out of space for an animal. If zoos are willing to adopt the surplus animal, there’s no reason why they should be denied. Even if the zoo doesn’t want the animal to be adopted, it can always be set back into the wild, where it really belongs. It’s sickening that an animal who spends its whole life behind bars is put to death by a shotgun at such a young age.
There is also so much outrage, that the zoo most likely will lose most if not all of its visitors. People immediately started protesting after learning of the giraffe’s death. It is never okay to kill any type of animal, so there is no reason it should be ok for professionals at a zoo to do it. Hopefully in the future there will be laws preventing this from happening again. We need to fight for animals because they aren’t able to fight back.