Euthanasia/ Culling

[Jurek7]

I think your opening statement is untrue. And if children's compassion depends on visiting the zoo then society is in a dark place.

You falsely extend the argument. Nobody depends on zoos on anything. It is zoos which need to find acceptance of society or disappear.

 

[gentle lemur]

After reading @Onychorhynchus coronatus's point about horsemeat, it occurs to me that probably all zoos support culling when they feed day-old chicks to a wide range of carnivorous species. These are, of course, a waste product of the poultry industry: the male chicks which will never lay eggs and are not suitable for growing on for meat production.

 

[SHAVINGTONZOO]

You falsely extend the argument.

I don't think that I do.

"Children learn how to treat other people by treating animals" is, I think, what you said.

That is surely untrue. Many children grow up with no experience of "treating animals". Does that mean they have no sense of how to treat other people?

The whole question of management culling comes down to a simple question. Which is more important, the species or the individuals within that species ?

I say the species. Others may disagree, and that's their right.

But - ultimately - does anyone really think it right that the survival of e.g. the Indo-Chinese Tiger should be put at risk because the available housing is full of elderly non-breeders ?

 

[Andrew Swales]

After reading @Onychorhynchus coronatus's point about horsemeat, it occurs to me that probably all zoos support culling when they feed day-old chicks to a wide range of carnivorous species. These are, of course, a waste product of the poultry industry: the male chicks which will never lay eggs and are not suitable for growing on for meat production.

Mammalian/avian zoo food is classed by DERFA as a 'by-product' IF it is secondary to the main product of the industry. Culled chicks fall into that category, along with horse-meat from culled animals, and product from (say) cattle slaughtered for the human food-chain, but not used in it. A 'primary product' is the farmed animal itself, so those chicks not culled become primary product when slaughtered later. Animals specifically farmed for feeding to other animals, such as rats and mice, although clearly primary products are classed by DEFRA a 'by-products'.

Another interesting example is say a Red Deer - which, if it dies or is euthanased in a zoo, it is hazardous waste and must be incinerated and cannot fed to zoo animals - if it dies or is slaughtered on a deer-farm then it is agricultural waste and then can be fed under the 'Animal By-Products Order' - if it dies or is shot in the wild, then it is classed as 'game'and its use is unrestricted, save for any closed season on hunting.

All of this presumably made sense to someone - perhaps the same people who said zoos can stay open but no-one can travel to them.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

I am not sure that there is actually a huge amount of pubic outrage'. It is the 'outrage' of a minority, a proportion of whom are anti-zoo anyway, fueled by an opportunistic and sensationalist media. Here, we have no evidence that there is any more issue with feeding horse, than any other meat. A small (very small) proportion of visitors will complain if they can see recognisable pieces of carcass being fed, presumably because they are used to having their own food sanitised and processed for them. Some zoos, of course, fuel this 'miss-education' and feed day-old chicks and other recognisable food items outside public opening hours.

I remember there being quite a bit of public outrage about the giraffe incident in Copenhagan on social media but I agree that this is largely fueled by a sensationalist media.

I should clarify, my point on horse meat was more about the irrational and incoherent dimensions and ontologies in the way that people view animals and their "rights". I assume that the feeding of horse meat is "out of sight, out of mind" for most of the zoo going public who are unaware of this practice in big cat husbandry and so there is very little outrage towards it despite the potential for this to happen.

The horse is a culturally salient animal and not typically consumed for meat like other domestics like pigs, cattle and sheep so like the giraffe it could generate at least some "outrage" if the public were to know (even though the same animal will be fed to big cats kept in animal rights sanctuaries who may portray themselves as superior entities to zoos). But what is the difference between feeding the carcass of a horse or a giraffe (which arguably lived much happier lives than most livestock prior to being culled) to big cats from doing the same with those of animals that we traditionally raise to be slaughtered for our own consumption such as cattle or pigs ?

Regarding some zoos not feeding day old chicks or other recognisable carcasses to animals during public opening hours , is that for real ? ... All I can say is that this strikes me as a totally bizarre and unnecessary attitude and practice and I think it almost perpetuates this kind of infantalized Walt Disney view of the natural world.