Marius the Giraffe: The Debate Between Geneticists and Animal Rights Activists

   This is Marius. He lived in a zoo in Copenhagen, Denmark. He spent most of his days walking around his enclosure, grazing on acacia leaves and interacting with his fellow giraffes. This past Sunday, Marius was lured out of his enclosure with a piece of bread and shot in the head with a bolt gun. The zoo's reasoning of why they did this and then dissected his body in front of visitors and fed him to the lions? His genetics. Apparently, the genes that Marius had were over-represented among giraffes in captivity, and therefore, he needed to be put down. Needless to say, this has outraged much of the public and animal rights activists, but many geneticists are supporting this decision. Their argument is that when animals in captivity are not properly monitored, inbreeding occurs, and can hurt conservation efforts. 

   While I agree that conservation is very important when it comes to threatened and endangered species, I simply cannot agree with euthanasia when it comes to a healthy animal. Do I believe that he should have become a sire to all of the other female giraffes? Well no, of course not. But there were other options that the zoo had that did not involve a bolt gun. Marius could have been relocated to somewhere else that would take care of him, or he simply could have been sterilized so that he was unable to reproduce. The Copenhagen Zoo did not even stop to think and consider either of those options, even after mass petitioning from the public and an offer from Yorkshire Wildlife Park to take him. That is the part that I believe is completely wrong and inhumane. Marius was only 18 months old, still just a baby in giraffe terms, since males are not sexually mature until 4 or 5 years old. There is not even a remotely acceptable reason as to why he needed to be killed. Hopefully this unfortunate event can act as an impetus to stop zoos from killing animals unnecessarily in the future.       

Article Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-killing-of-marius-the-giraffe-opens-an-important-debate-about-genetics-animal-rights-and-zoo-inbreeding-9120219.html

Related Link: http://www.giraffeconservation.org/