The zoo said that because it was unable to find a suitable new residence for it, it must be executed before it became estrous as an adult.
But conservationists say it is inhumane to kill a healthy giraffe.
The BBC reporter in Copenhagen said that Marius, an 18 month old male giraffe, was leisurely eating grass in his kennel, unaware that he would be executed on Sunday.
Holst, the scientific director of Copenhagen Zoo, said that all existing giraffes in the zoo have the same gene as "Marius". He said that he could not understand why the zoo planned to execute Marius would cause such a big response.
Holst said that a deer farm in the north of Copenhagen would kill 700 to 800 deer every year to control their number. The zoo is going to kill Marius with an electric shock gun instead of injecting a death injection, because that would pollute the body.
After Marius was executed, the zoo prepared to decompose his body and feed the meat to tigers and other carnivorous animals. Holst said, "It's a waste to throw away hundreds of kilograms of meat. Some meat will be used for research, and others will be used as feed‘ According to Swedish media, Sweden The Fraser Zoo in the northern city of Ostsund expressed its willingness to accept the giraffe to Copenhagen. When asked how to transport a giraffe about 3.5 meters high from Denmark to Sweden, the director of Fraser Zoo said: "When using trucks... pay attention to bridges and wires when transporting." But in the end, the giraffe was doomed. [1]
Animal protectors protest
