Euthanasia/ Culling

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banham.tiger

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Hi all thought I would start this thread to see everybody’s opinion on the topic of euthanising animals and breeding to cull.

Some examples

-Euthanising healthy animals to make space for others
-Euthanising hybrids or non breeding animals
-Breeding animals to allow them to express natural behaviour

the list could go on they are just some examples to consider. I think this is something that happens more often in zoos than we think and just thought id like to start a discussion on the subject so please share your opinion theres no right or wrong answer!
 
Not only does it happen, but Zoochat has seen more than a few very vitriolic and energetic discussions on the topic in the past :P the Marius incident happened just after I was promoted to moderator, so dealing with the resulting threads was quite the trial by fire!
 
Viewpoints differ greatly through different cultures and regions on this subject. The views of European zoos on the continent are very different to those on our island for example.
 
banham.tiger said:
Hi all thought I would start this thread to see everybody’s opinion on the topic of euthanising animals and breeding to cull.

Some examples

-Euthanising healthy animals to make space for others
-Euthanising hybrids or non breeding animals
-Breeding animals to allow them to express natural behaviour

the list could go on they are just some examples to consider. I think this is something that happens more often in zoos than we think and just thought id like to start a discussion on the subject so please share your opinion theres no right or wrong answer!
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I am against the euthanizing of healthy animals, for example Marius at Copenhagen and in 2018, the euthanasia of 2 lion cubs and 7 more in the past six years at Boras because they were surplus. If they were going to euthanize them, they shouldn't let their lions breed or at least try to find them a home.

In many AZA zoos, when some animals are no longer necessary for the SSP, they try to relocate them to unaccredited zoos and I would rather let that animal live in an unaccredited zoo than euthanize it.
 
I'm much more in favour of the gradual phasing out of hybrids from zoos through preventing breeding and also restricting the breeding of common ABC species rather than resorting to euthanasia.

But though I do not approve of it I have to say that I do understand from a conservation genetic perspective the cold and clinical logic behind incidents such as the giraffe at Copenhagen zoo.
 
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Having worked in zoo's and sanctuaries I think some zoo's or collections that don't have the facilities for housing breeding pairs.,can still have an educational purpose housing inbred or non breeding animals. This gives the public the ability to learn about wildlife conservation, as with surplus males surely all male or female herds make amazing exhibits. I have always been of the opinion that any animal bred is of the right to a long life, zoos are not farms. Just a thought
 
I always thought animals in an EEP or ESB were subject to breeding recommendations so unnecessary excessive breeding should not occur for those species surely if there is nowhere to rehome the offspring?
I'm still as disgusted by the execution and public display relating to Marius the giraffe as I was at the time. I understand this might be necessary in large herds of deer, but not high profile animals zoos give pet names to! I would rather not get to involved in this, I don't want to get started on Longleat's shame again!!
 
I know of a uk collection which euthanises its big cats when they reach a certain age. I think these practices happen in zoos more than we think.

In my opinion sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the ‘greater good’.
 
" greater good " my god I didn't know Donald trump was a member of zoo chat. Well in that case what are we all doing indoors, let's all meet up shake hand's and discuss this issue. You know for the greater good, don't forget to bring any elderly relatives. This pandemic has taught us all something, some of us think of ourselves as superior being's,. But what could be the taking down of society as we know it, started with bat droppings
 
Zoonut said:
" greater good " my god I didn't know Donald trump was a member of zoo chat. Well in that case what are we all doing indoors, let's all meet up shake hand's and discuss this issue. You know for the greater good, don't forget to bring any elderly relatives. This pandemic has taught us all something, some of us think of ourselves as superior being's,. But what could be the taking down of society as we know it, started with bat droppings
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My god....and there's a way to have a regular/respectful conversation. I personally agree with your views, and certainly I don't think it is the "greater good". But I think the nature of your reply was a little uncalled for.

But back to the conversation of culling in zoos. As someone had stated above "zoos are not farms", certainly I agree with that. Certainly this is no secret, with some cases more highlighted than others, but I really think that if the public had wider knowledge of this, there would be great backlash.
 
Maybe because there aren't millions of giraffe in the world, but there are millions of cattle a domestic species. That animal was healthy, and could have gone to a bachelor group and lived out it's life educating the public on its wild counterparts precarious situation.
 
Zoonut said:
Maybe because there aren't millions of giraffe in the world, but there are millions of cattle a domestic species. That animal was healthy, and could have gone to a bachelor group and lived out it's life educating the public on its wild counterparts precarious situation.
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Except (and this is something many people seem to forget) is that Copenhagen Zoo first tried to find a suitable zoo for him, but at that point no-one was interested. Only after the decision to euthanize was made public some soos (for personal propaganda purposes) at once wanted the animal, which they refused earlier.
 
Well I don't see why they euthanased him after offers of a home came through for whatever propaganda purposes, a pointless waste of and endangered species life.
 
Zoonut said:
Well I don't see why they euthanased him after offers of a home came through for whatever propaganda purposes, a pointless waste of and endangered species life.
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Maybe because the Copenhagen Zoo did nothing wrong here and followed all their protocols and thought that such insincere help would be bad for them in the long term. Remember that most of the outrage came from outside of Denmark, not from within the country, which is where the zoo will be most susceptible to.

Young Addax, a critically endangered species, are euthanized on an annual basis in Europe, because of a lack of space. Halting breeding because you can't be sure to have sufficient home for all male offspring would quickly mean the end of such a species in Europe, given it is less high-profile and nobody will free up space for them. You then quickly end up with a small overaged population, putting the survival of that species in European zoos at risk. There is 0 outcry about that, even though these deaths are partly announced by the zoo itself.
 
Well obviously we don't all share the same ideals as to what is ethically acceptable to do with critically endangered species, to breed endangered species and hope that some where will take them just to maintain an exhibit in a collection. Just seems bizarre to me.
 
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