Copenhagen Zoo and Marius the Giraffe

[Austupaio]

Even worse, that would've gone straight through and splattered it's head all over the ground.

 

[Sir Saladin]

It doesn't make sense that they would have blown its brains out. Going through the heart and lungs would have killed it without having the arterial blood spraying all over the place.

They should have built a really long guillotine and sold tickets.

 

[rebelsquirrell]

The reason why guns were used instead of another method is this man was angry about what the giraffe had done to him.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SXj_Ecc3y8

 

[RalliX]

awfully messy way to kill an animal

Not if you use a slug.

 

[Austupaio]

Not sure what's got you and Saladin thinking slugs aren't messy. It's going to cause massive blood leakage, it's still liable to ricochet in or out of the body, and will cause massive bone fragmentation.

That's why no one professional uses firearms for animal executions anymore, that's what bolt guns are for.

 

[RalliX]

Not sure what's got you and Saladin think slugs aren't messy. It's going to cause massive blood leakage, it's still liable to ricochet in or out of the body, and will cause massive bone fragmentation.

That's why no one professional uses firearms for animal executions anymore, that's what bolt guns are for.

Oh, one of those. I thought bolt gun meant bolt-action gun, for some reason.

 

[Baguette Eater]

that's what bolt guns are for.

Yes because and explosive bolter shell is obviously not going to send animal parts all over the place

隐藏

 

[Rujasu]

We don't normally invite children to live autopsies.

The giraffe isn't the only public dissection they've done, and they get a big audience every time they do.

 

[Wellenbrecher]

About killing the giraffe, I guess it was that, or spending a lot of money in sterilization.

Having it sterilised "would've taken the place of a genetically more useful animal".
This is done all the time, only generally in a less public manner. The current BS they have to suffer through shows why.
And if you read statements by other zoos and such, almost no one there will criticize the killing itself - in fact for example the Frankfurt Zoo called it "morally and ethically correct" - only the weird decision to have a public dissection.

 

[Anarion]

I think this was a good idea. The kids in Copenhagen rarely get the chance to see an animal killed and slaughtered, but they still scarf down their pork sausages every day with a generous serving of beer (being Danish). This time it's a giraffe, and why not? It was going to be killed anyway. This way it's educational. IIRC there was a British television program about just dissecting animals on screen. Not that much different from this.

 

[Radalan]

I read an article earlier today that said they used a shotgun.

I couldn't find a single article stating that the animal was killed with a shotgun.
I did find dozens of articles mentioning the bolt gun.

 

[Bromden]

Sounds like an appeal to nature fallacy. No, I'm against eating meat per se. At best, you can argue that this or that animal is not self-conscious. But they can still feel pain and pleasure (obviously talking about "regular" animals that are most often used as food like chicken, pig or cow, not insects for example). Even if you kill an animal in a completely painless way (fat chance) then you are still destroying any future potential pleasure or happiness it may experience. In order to reach a goal you can at zero additional cost achieve in other ways. You are just destroying feeling entities because...they are delicious?

Nonono, you're missing some details. They are nurtured, sheltered, fed, medicined if necessary, and then destroyed because they are delicious.

 

[Jhessail]

A Dutch wild-life park had offered to take Marius and, AFAIK, there wouldn't have been any genetic issues. And calling the autopsy educational is absolutely bull****. It's as educational as watching a traffic accident while driving by. It's not like the kids were right up to the giraffe and getting a lecture while it was being cut up.

 

[Rujasu]

Was that the same wildlife park that refused to sign the paper to promise they aren't just going to sell it to a circus or anything?

 

[Scully]

I like how the zoo just killed it before the internet support groups even got started whining.

 

[FrisianDude]

They could have given it to other zoos instead of killing the poor thing but beside that, nothing bad.

I thought the whole thing was that they tried but couldn't and therefore decided to make it useful; for kids to learn and for lions to eat.

 

[Jhessail]

Was that the same wildlife park that refused to sign the paper to promise they aren't just going to sell it to a circus or anything?

I have no idea.

 

[Sir Saladin]

I did laugh when I read that it was supposed to be educational. I imagine some guy saying "Now pay attention children, I'm going to kill this cute animal and carve it up. The lesson I want you to learn from this demonstration is that I could do this to you just as easily. So sit down and shut up!"

 

[Krik]

I think the killing is ****ed up but I'm entirely against zoos so of course I feel that way. The dissection I don't think would be that awful under different circumstances, I mean it was announced as a dissection I don't what anyone who went was expecting.

 

[Dodes]

They were probably expecting candy to fly out. This is why the dissection is so important, as the pinata industry has horribly misinformed the public.