Melissa Cronin for The Dodo, reporting on the euthanasia of a giraffe in Denmark:
In a bizarre plot twist that is sure to provoke anger, another giraffe at a second Danish zoo may meet the same fate as the giraffe named Marius who was euthanized and publicly autopsied at the Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark last Sunday—and this giraffe is also named Marius. The new Marius, a healthy seven-year-old giraffe at the Jyllands Park Zoo, is considered unsuitable for breeding because his genetic makeup is already represented in the gene pool. The zoo said there was a high risk that Marius would have to be put down if the facility were to acquire a female giraffe to breed with the other male giraffe.
A good read for some quick-and-dirty regarding one particular terrible zoo in Denmark.
At first glance, animal rights activists largely project an aura of ‘holier than thou,’ or perhaps even more deplorable, ‘you are the worst person in the world for [insert act here that most vegans would despise].’
Please don’t make this your take home message.
The Dodo has a short blurb at the end of all their pieces. It reads well here:
Hundreds of millions of people visit zoos every year, despite increasing public anxiety about animals in captivity. If you want to make sure you’re at least visiting a zoo that makes efforts to be humane, make sure it is on the list of U.S. facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums; internationally accredited facilities are listed here by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. If you want to see whether a facility has any recent USDA violations, you can search this database. You can report a zoo or aquarium to the USDA here. And if you want to become active against having animals in captivity, Peta and Born Free USA offer places to start.
What you should take away from this post is that many of the animal-centric pastimes we enjoy in first-world countries are, for the most part, pretty terrible for said animals. And by and large, zoos are some of the worst examples of such. No amount of petitions or campaigns will have more power than your refusal to support organizations that exploit animals for money. Just. Don’t. Go. To. Those. Places. What will SeaWorld say when that happens?
You can sign the petition to save yet another young giraffe here.