Did you ever go to the zoo as a child? I know I did. My favorite part was always seeing the babies and just seeing how cute they were. Baby animals are just adorable, and zoos know this. This is why they are bred, to keep up attraction. Sounds a bit cruel to be born just for others to make money of you just because of your age. But all babies grow up right; I mean we did, so why are zoos not over run with more than one male and one female of each animal? Granite some are spayed and neutered, but what happens to the babies when they grow up? Where do they go? Why aren’t they there?

     Over the weekend, Marius, an 18-month old giraffe, found out all these answers. What happened to him was devastating and stunned the world and opened many eyes. Marius was perfectly healthy, and as happy as a captivated baby giraffe could be. But poor little Marius was not thought of as breeding material, so little Marius met his untimely end. At 10 A.M, in the Copenhagen Zoo, an audience surrounded, many of which were children, and watched as the young giraffe was shot, and dissected and dismembered by a pride of the zoos lions. A three-hour public dissection began minutes after his last meal and then being shot with a bolt gun to the head.

     Tobias Stenbaek Bro, a spokesperson for the zoo, said he was proud that this happened publicly, because it gave the children a better understanding of the anatomy of a giraffe. Bengt Holst, a scientific director for the zoo, stated that the execution was justifiable because Marius was only ever to be used as a ‘surplus to requirements’. By this, he meant that Marius was too alike to the males already in the breeding programme they had. They said that keeping him would lead to inbreeding within their programme.

     Now was there other options then the brutal slaying of Marius, well the Copenhagen Zoo thought not. They ruled out castration due to the sedative making Marius fall to the ground and possibly injuring or breaking his neck. But giraffes are given sedatives all the time for medical procedures. It just becomes a careful procedure to make sure he does not get injured. So why was Marius not able to calmly be sedated and neutered if he was unfit for the programme and would injure the females? One simple reason. What good to the breeding system is a castrated giraffe? None. But is it really far that they will do this again, and have done this before. This is done all the time but no one takes notice. A breeding pair is used to make an ‘attraction child’ and then when the baby is deemed to old, or not able to breed, they are put down or fed to the other animals.

     This isn’t even limited to giraffes. Zebras, tigers, bears , and more were also classified as ‘culls’ just as Marius was. Another problem within this zoo has been over population. Just showing how well their ‘flawless’ breeding programme is. It was stated that the lion cub population has increased by 40%. In result to this, just days before Marius’ horrid death, a lioness and her four cubs were also put down for over population.

     Yes this is the circle of life, yes this does happen in the wild. But not to this extent. Lions don’t sit and cut open a giraffe after a shot to the head and dissect it then eat it. Lions just hunt and eat. That is the circle of life. Just imagine being taking from your home, placed in a cage, transported to a bigger, more ‘realistic’ cage, then you have a child. A year and a half later this happens to your child. It’s just not humane or right in anyway. I do understand that the lions are mainly herbivores, but notorious for eating meat, and its in their nature to eat meat, but this was just wrong.

     So, is this fair? Because not only does this happen at one zoo, but most zoos. When babies become older, they become seen as way more useless. No longer cute. No longer an attraction. No longer useful in our ‘perfect’ breeding system. So this become a common way many zoo animals meet their death way before they should have. Giraffes are said to be able to live 25 years or more in captivity, which I don’t believe, but just goes to show how young Marius was compared to how old he could have lived to be. Just like most animals that don’t pass away naturally in captivity. Total fairness.