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A giraffe at a zoo in the UK. PA Wire/Press Association Images
Not again

Danish zoo may kill ANOTHER healthy giraffe named Marius

Marius’ genes make him unsuitable for breeding, so he may have to be put down.

JUST DAYS AFTER a Copenhagen zoo sparked global outrage by putting down a healthy giraffe named Marius, another Danish zoo says it may do the same thing to a giraffe with the same name.

The Jyllands Park Zoo, near the town of Herning, said yesterday that it may have to kill one of its giraffes, coincidentally also named Marius, because his genes make him unsuitable for breeding.

“We can’t keep him if we get a female, because then we would have two males that would fight with each other,” zoo keeper Janni Loejtved Poulsen told AFP.

Seven-year-old Marius is healthy but is less of a priority for breeders since his genes are already represented in the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP), which the zoo joined just over a year ago.

If the European organisation is unable to find Marius a new home, the Jyllands Park Zoo will have to put him down, she said.

Super-tall trailer carries giraffes A giraffe at a zoo in Scotland PA Archive / Press Association Images PA Archive / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Last week, the scientific director of Copenhagen’s zoo received death threats after Marius, a healthy 18-month-old giraffe, was put down despite numerous offers for him to be rehoused and thousands signing an online petition to save him.

The animal was later skinned and dissected in front of visitors, many of them children. Its meat was then fed to lions.

Many Danes have been surprised and even angered by the international outrage over the giraffe. This video of the zoo’s scientific director Bengt Holst putting a British news presenter “in his place” went viral in Denmark this week:

Channel 4 News

- © AFP, 2014

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