Giraffes. Down with Copenhagen Zoo.

[monster]

I hate the Copenhagen Zoo. they have ruined Giraffes for me. As a baby, Hector seemed drawn to giraffe toys (maybe long necks to grab?) So we had lots. We have great memories of the West Midlands Safari Park, feeding the giraffes apples through the sunroof.....

But Saturdays IOTD about the giraffe and browsing a thrift store today and seeing toy giraffes just made me sad. And I hadn't even read Spuck's comment then. I know it's not really any different than farming any other animal for meat. I just think they went about it all wrong.... I dunno irrational, overly-emotional....whatever I. Hate. That Zoo.

That is all.

[Carruthers]

I remember Victor the Giraffe who fell at Marwell Park Zoo, near Winchester, in 1977.

The poor chap tore a muscle and essentially did 'the splits'. They eventually lifted him but he died of a heart attack shortly after and the girl who looked after him was absolutely distraught.

I know that zoos do a lot of good work in wildlife preservation, but wild animals shouldn't really be kept in captivity.

Just my two penn'orth.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Carruthers

I know that zoos do a lot of good work in wildlife preservation, but wild animals shouldn't really be kept in captivity.

This, exactly this. That baby gorilla pic killed me. What a horrible life he has in front of him, but his species in in trouble in the wild.

[Carruthers]

I haven't been to a zoo in years, but I have an abiding memory of many visitors seemingly being there for the sole purpose of ridiculing the animals.
Quite honestly, it was akin to a Victorian freak show. It must be said that the animals conducted themselves with rather more dignity than did the humans.

A few days ago this picture was in the Daily Telegraph:

Kirno, a 14-year-old male orangutan smokes a cigarette inside his enclosure at Jurug Zoo in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia. Visitors are throwing pre-lit cigarettes to the ape and then laughing as he smokes like a human. Management at Jurung Zoo have yet to stamp out the practice and the orangutan is now said to be smoking dozens each day.

It doesn't appear to be an isolated case. Googling the subject found this:

Zookeepers said on Friday that they plan to move Tori away from visitors who regularly throw lit cigarettes into her cage so they can watch and photograph her puffing away and flicking ashes on the ground.

The primate mimics human behaviour, holding cigarettes casually between her fingers while taking long drags and blowing bursts of smoke out her nostrils to the delight of visitors.

Taru Jurug Zoo director Lili Krisdianto said the move was aimed to protect four endangered orangutans at the 14-hectare (35-acre) zoo in the Central Java town of Solo.

Results of a medical test are expected Saturday to determine how much Tori's smoking has affected her health, said Hardi Baktiantoro of the Borneo-based Center for Orangutan Protection, which is helping to coordinate the intervention. A mesh cover will initially be placed over Tori's cage, and later she will be moved to a small island away from the public, he said.

Several Indonesian zoos have come under scrutiny following animal deaths, including a giraffe that died in the long-troubled Surabaya Zoo in March with an 18-kilogram (40-pound) ball of plastic in its stomach after years of ingesting trash thrown into its enclosure by visitors.

Indonesia is also one of the last remaining countries where tobacco companies face few restrictions on selling, advertising and promoting products long banned elsewhere.

More than 60 percent of all men light up and a third of the country's entire population smokes.

Daily Telegraph.

What can you do but throw your hands up in the air in despair?

[Happy Monkey]

Do they live long enough to have much risk of lung cancer?

'Cause, while on one level I think it's bad, on another level I don't begrudge a zoo animal any mind-altering drug it can get its hands on.

[lumberjim]

would you toss in a joint if no one was looking?

[Carruthers]

And so it goes on...

Danish zoo that culled giraffe kills family of lions

[glatt]

I think there might be a cultural difference between me and the subhuman monsters that run the Zoo there.

[monster]

odds on them feeding the lions to the giraffes? Some park in England put down some lions the same week as the giraffe, didn't they.

But there's just something special about giraffes. Or there was

[xoxoxoBruce]

Quite honestly, it was akin to a Victorian freak show. It must be said that the animals conducted themselves with rather more dignity than did the humans.

That's as it should be, after all we should scorn those animals in the zoo like we scorn the residents of the ghetto, or fans of the wrong football team. Parents have the duty to teach their spawn how to taunt and/or torture inferior creatures.

Yeah, what's wrong with those subhuman monsters running zoos. After all the unlimited space and money we give them, they ought to be able to keep all the animals and their offspring forever. Like Farmer Brown does when old Bessie drops off her milk production, just let her live out her natural life browsing alfalfa and buttercups in bucolic pastures.

Ever since the Mayor's brother-in-law was replaced by those meddling zoologists the zoo ain't been the same. Bitch, bitch, bitch, you can't feed all the animals the same dog kibbles, you can't keep all the animals in little cages, you can't let animals just screw willy-nilly. Then they blow the budget going to conferences with other zoologists, trying to figure out how to manipulate the breeding between zoos to build a solid gene pool. They've got the gall to try to undo what the rest of us have done in the wild... acting like gods, I tell ya.

They could probably make some extra money by charging late night visitors to watch a little father/daughter, mother/son, or brother/sister action. You know, from little glass windowed booths with coin operated tissue dispensers.
Gotta be careful of the glory holes with the big cats though. The Mayor's BIL would have.