Zoo kills giraffe, feeds it to the lions, tears of rage flood the net

[Rolfe]

"Autopsy" means looking for yourself, so you could use the word for anything. You just don't, unless you're American. Necropsy or post mortem examination are both acceptable terms.

Rolfe.

 

[Biscuit]

My sister was pretty outraged by this last night. Without any details other than the giraffe was killed I tried to assure her that they must have had good reason for what they did. Zoo's are not in the habit of the pointless euthanizing of their product. I actually thought the necropsy was a good idea and would have liked to see that.

 

[Rat]

My sister was pretty outraged by this last night. Without any details other than the giraffe was killed I tried to assure her that they must have had good reason for what they did. Zoo's are not in the habit of the pointless euthanizing of their product. I actually thought the necropsy was a good idea and would have liked to see that.

I think it's on the Grauniad site if a video will do.

 

[Dragonrock]

"Autopsy" means looking for yourself, so you could use the word for anything. You just don't, unless you're American. Necropsy or post mortem examination are both acceptable terms.

Rolfe.

The vet who explained it to me said the latin translation for "autopsy" was "to view one's image" while "necropsy" means "to view another's image."

But, I have learned that finding out I am wrong only means I am smarter than I was 5 minutes ago.

 

[MRC_Hans]

As already mentioned, that particular giraffee had no future in Zoos, because its genes were already well represented in the zoo population.

The Copenhagen Zoo cannot sell animals to anybody except other zoos.

If a wrong was ever made, it was in breeding it in the first place, but presumably the situation was not foreseen at the time.

Hans

 

[catsmate]

"Autopsy" means looking for yourself, so you could use the word for anything. You just don't, unless you're American. Necropsy or post mortem examination are both acceptable terms.

Rolfe.

Wasn't 'necropsy' used for post-mortem examinations of humans at one time?
I read a lot of mysteries and I think it was a common usage in the '20-30s.
Anyway OT.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm not aware that necropsy is in any way an exclusively veterinary term. It just means the examination of a dead body. In fact we usually just say PM, but when writing reports we sometimes use necropsy as an alternative to vary the language.

It's not the same as the constant nagging about the difference between epidemic and epizootic. Which I had to go over with second year in class yet again this morning.

Rolfe.

 

[casebro]

They did say that if not for the Giraffe, a horse would have been killed and fed to the lions. Probably not killed at the zoo, ...

I got behind the scene at the San Diego zoo as a kid. A schoolmate's Grampa worked there. They had a chain fall over a floor drain. Carnivores got fed very fresh horse meat. And the freezer held a whole antelope carcass.

So far as education-ness goes, in one album I have is a pic of my 4yo niece getting an anatomy lesson while helping clean fish. She is in med school now.

 

[Jim_MDP]

As already mentioned, that particular giraffee had no future in Zoos, because its genes were already well represented in the zoo population.

The Copenhagen Zoo cannot sell animals to anybody except other zoos.

Hans

More specifically... only to other members of their zoo association, which put the kibosh on at least one of the zoo purchase offers and definitely the private individual offer.

 

[Arcade22]

I wonder if they sell sausages at the zoo, and what people think of that ...

They don't care. This whole thing will be forgotten by the next week, because in the end some people just like being offended since it gives their pointless lives a brief moment of meaning.

 

[Polaris]

They don't care. This whole thing will be forgotten by the next week, because in the end some people just like being offended since it gives their pointless lives a brief moment of meaning.

There you go, being all killjoy!

 

[Jim_MDP]

They don't care. This whole thing will be forgotten by the next week, because in the end some people just like being offended since it gives their pointless lives a brief moment of meaning.

I would agree except for PETA's involvement. I suspect this is going to make it (very graphically) into their literature for at least the near future.

 

[fuelair]

I actually felt sorta bad for the National Zoo's two cheetah's recently.

About a month back a White Tailed Deer jumped into the cheetah enclosure and... well exactly what you think would happened happened. The zoo keepers, not totally without reason I guess, took the carcass away before the cheetahs could eat it citing that they couldn't be sure the animal wasn't sick or diseased.

Still given that in the wild very similar animals like Thompson and Grant's Gazelles, Impalas, and Springbok's make us the bulk of their diet I can't imagine they wouldn't have enjoyed their meal if given the chance.

Re: final para, I was under the impression that Gazelles, Impalas and Springboks were herbivores and certainly would not be eating human beings.

 

[ravdin]

From the outrage I can only assume these lions usually eat cabbages and carrots, and a bit of meat is a special treat for them.

 

[Jim_MDP]

Re: final para, I was under the impression that Gazelles, Impalas and Springboks were herbivores and certainly would not be eating human beings.

I swear, it took me four passes to spot the typo.

 

[Xulld]

Years ago when I attended my first meeting of the (then Royal) Zoological Society of Ireland as a member I proposed the introduction of live sheep, rabbits et cetera into the compounds of the large carnivores. This would, I suggested, give those carnivores such exercise, educate passers-bye and reduce storage costs as the food supply could be kept penned rather than frozen.
It was not adopted.

Its a shame, that would also curb, or fix the issues associated with reintroduction if when it occurred for any of the predators so exposed to real game.


Edit:
Where are our resident vegans to explain the outrage for us?

 

[Rat]

Where are our resident vegans to explain the outrage for us?

I would assume that they might have reservations about zoos in the first place (vegans I know are generally ambivalent about them), but our resident vegans (that I know of) don't seem too stupid to know that if you have zoos, you have standard animal management practices.

 

[GlennB]

Autopsy on humans, necropsy on all other animals.

Now if you'll excuse me I must go tell the grocery store it should be "12 items or FEWER."

Also, I watched a show on NatGeo that had footage of a group of juvenile lions eating the guts out of a still live water buffalo. IIRC the buffalo lived for an hour all the while having its guts chewed on.

I believe I saw that, but I'm fairly sure it was hyenas on a wildebeest. Lions get a throat grip and asphyxiate the prey, leading to a relatively quick death. A pack of hyenas just start chewing as soon as the the animal is down. Juvenile lions would be accompanied by adults who know the score.

Not saying that's a bad thing about the hyenas, mind, as all these animals risk getting evicted from their kill by others. Lions can even get seen off a kill by hyenas or vultures, just by the sheer hassle factor.

 

[KDLarsen]

/headdesk

Now the damn giraffe-story has reached JREF too.

As for the 3 offers to take the giraffe off ZOO Copenhagen's hands:
The offer from Yorkshire Wildlife Park was rejected as they already have an older brother of Marius, so the free spot would be better suited to a subspecies less represented in European Zoos.
The offer from Sweden was rejected, as the particular park isn't a member of EAZA, and thus ZOO Copenhagen was legally barred from transferring Marius to them, as there would be no certainty of what would happen to him later on.
There was even a bizarre attempt by some PR rule10 to organise for a billionaire friend of his to buy the giraffe, which was naturally rejected right out.

 

[GlennB]

It's a funny business.

When our family moved to Somerset, years back, we rented a flat on a dairy farm for a while. Sometimes calves would be still-born and the farm would donate the carcasses to the Longleat Safari Park nearby, which had lions and tigers to feed.

On a car tour of Longleat a bit later, with our young children, we passed lions chewing on calves' heads. What to say to the kids?