The animal rights activists are up in arms again. From the title of the article and the opening sentence, many students already know of what incident I’m writing.
A week or two ago, a zoo in Copenhagen put down a healthy 18-month-old giraffe, despite the petition signed by thousands of people to not do so, and then publicly dissected and fed the giraffe to the lions at the zoos.

It was done in the name of preserving the genetic diversity of the species, as well as the fact that the zoo didn’t have room for him. I believe that the zoo could have chosen another means by which to deal with the giraffe named Marius. Celebrities like Jack Hanna raise the good question of why the zoo is “breeding animals for which it doesn’t have room.”

Also, the idea of publicly shooting the animal, in front of children and then publicly dissecting it seems a bit like overkill to me. You want to educate the public about what conservation efforts sometimes require, fine. But may I ask why you’re going to cut open a giraffe and show its guts to a group of young children? That seems a little gruesome for many of these kids. So, maybe that little part of the show wasn’t the best idea.

However, if I may play Devil’s Advocate for a bit to criticize the public reaction to this foolish decision, many people stop looking at the situation once the giraffe’s dead and dissected. But the staff of the zoo is getting death threats for their actions. Seriously, folks? I love animals and all, but I’m not going to threaten to kill or actually kill an actual, living, breathing human being because of a foolish decision regarding animal care. This is not a case of abuse or animal torture where there may legitimate emotional reasons for thinking that the perpetrators should experience some degree of what they made the animals endure. However, even in cases of animal torture, there is no logical or moral reasoning for threatening to take people’s lives. I do believe that people are far more important than animals in terms of value.

Animal life is a regrettable loss, but it is nowhere near the tragedy of the loss of a human life. So, while your emotions are rightfully flared over the death of Marius, please keep this whole thing in perspective, folks.