Zoo in Denmark made an unusual request: If you feel it, send us your pets so we can keep our beautiful predatory population. As one would expect, there was some public shouting on the
“Chickens, rabbits and peaks form an important part of our predators’ diet,” the zoo said, On Facebook passeh, Noting that such animals are “reminiscent of what” predators “would naturally hunt nature.” It added: “In zoos, we have the responsibility to emulate the animal’s natural food chain – so for animal welfare and professional integrity.”
“If you have a healthy animal that has to leave here for a variety of reasons, please donate it to us,” it added. “We ensure natural behavior, food and well -being of our predators.”
If potential donors care about their loved ones meeting a violent end, the zoo has some gentle words of calm: “The animals are gently killed by trained staff and are then used as nutrition. That way, nothing is wasted-and we ensure natural behavior, food and well-being of our predators.” Oh good.
The zoo had previously made a similar appeal to the public, asking that horses (another particularly beloved category of animals) be donated to the zoo so that they can be euthanized and fed to the predatory population of the facility.
The online outrage was of course fast and merciless. The comment section of the FB passenger lives with alarming online users. “Deep perverse and degenerative mindset,” one user said (translated from Danish). “How sick you think of something similar,” another asked. “This is a joke right, no one would bring their healthy pet to a zoo so they can kill it and feed it to animals there,” yet another person dared.
The zoo was predictably forced to treat the outrage. “After a great international interest, we chose to close the commentary trace of this search,” the Hilere facility said, in editing to the post. “We understand that the call is exciting emotion and interest, but hateful and wicked rhetoric is not necessary – and we encourage to keep the good tone. We work out and answer questions in the information box or by mail.”
Gizmodo has reached Aalborg Zoo for more information on this unusual policy and update our story if they respond.
It may be that people who work in a particular industry for some time forget how the “standards” are like. If you get used to seeing a beautiful, fluid rabbit, eviscerated from a giant mouth every day, it may become tempting to assume that everyone is used to such a sight. At least, Aalborg’s FB poster is a clear proof that zoo people are not necessarily pet people. If they were, they would have realized that there was little in this world that they could say that this would more violate the intended audience. They could also encourage visitors to donate their own human children as Tiger Bait.
