I wanted to write a post expressing my outrage for Marius the Giraffe. For those of you who don’t know Marius’ story he was killed recently in a bid to avoid in-breeding. But the story gets worse. Marius was killed using a bolt gun so that his meat would not be contaminated, he was then dissected IN FRONT OF PEOPLE and fed to the lions. And the sad thing about all of this is that two zoos have come forward and explained that they had offered the young giraffe a home, one of those, The Yorkshire Wildlife Park, here in the UK.
I’m saddened on so many levels for this poor young animal, he was completely healthy and was so beautiful. He was murdered just because his genes were surplus to Europe’s necessity for breeding giraffes. And his killing actually complied with European Breeding Regulations for giraffes. Who makes these laws? We hear so many stories about animals that need to be protected and there is so much horror at the abuse of animals in today’s society. I think every other week I see posts on Facebook naming and shaming somebody for running dog fights. Why was this animal worth any less than any other, why was he worth less than the protected rhinos or tigers?
This story has gone viral. I sincerely hope that Marius’ death opens peoples’ eyes and sparks an enquiry into current zoo policies and procedures. Surely this shouldn’t be happening and surely the zoo in Copenhagen should be prosecuted for animal cruelty. As they were complying to European laws they probably won’t though.
RIP Marius.
Here’s a link to a pretty graphic article if you need to see what I’m talking about. It’s not pretty though:
And I’ll leave you with a picture of the beautiful Marius.
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