[Taxacom] Killing of zoo giraffe to avoid inbreeding

[John Grehan]

Well, scientists regularly kill hybrids to keep supposed 'pure' species
'pure'.

John Grehan


On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 7:21 AM, Ken Kinman <kinman at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Dear All,       As you may have heard, a young giraffe at the Copenhagen
> Zoo was killed yesterday in order to avoid inbreeding.  That despite offers
> from other zoos to rehome him.  Although I can understand the zoo's
> rationalization, I don't understand what harm would have come from shipping
> him off to another zoo if he would be a zoo display animal (not a breeder).
>      Anyway, I guess this is common practice in zoos to avoid inbreeding
> in other mammals.  However, displaying the dead animal to a crowd
> (including children), much less reportedly cutting it up in front of said
> crowd, was probably very unwise.  Especially a young giraffe.  But on the
> other hand, death threats against zoo officials certainly are not called
> for.  In any case, I suppose a civil debate is in order about just how
> strict a zoo's inbreeding protocol should be in such cases (as well as the
> displaying of such a dead animal in public).
> http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/10/world/europe/denmark-zoo-giraffe/
>
>                                              --------------------Ken Kinman
>
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