Så kom video'en online, hvor hele USAs Poul "Dus Med Dyrene" Thomsen, Jack Hanna, går helt amok over naturens gang.
###
Published on Feb 10, 2014
2-10-14 - (CNN) - A Copenhagen zoo has been roundly condemned for euthanizing a young giraffe and feeding it to the lions... with children watching the whole thing. It was understandably horrifying and thousands of people who signed a petition to save Marius the giraffe were outraged, and now the zoo is receiving death threats for taking such drastic action.
A spokesman for the zoo said "several staff members" were targeted with such threats, and one of the zoo directors "received threats via telephone and e-mails."
Perhaps the most outraged person about the giraffe killing is American zookeeper Jack Hanna, who shared his absolute disdain on CNN Monday night. He called it "grotesque, abominable, insensitive," and said it can't simply be excused as a "cultural difference."
After all, the idea is that the giraffe was killed because of a "surplus problem," and Hanna said, "We can find a home for this giraffe very easily." There was a petition that attained over 27,000 signatures, but failed in its goal to save Marius.
####
PEREIRA: I think it's fair warning, John, that we should let people know that this next story we're about to tell you is pretty shocking and kind of hard for us here in North America to fathom.
BERMAN: More than pretty shocking. Incredibly shocking.
PEREIRA: Incredibly shocking.
A zoo in Copenhagen killed a healthy young giraffe and then cut him up and fed him to the lions and leopards.
BERMAN: And did this while children were watching.
Now, we have to warn you. We're about to show you some images that are very graphic, very hard to look at.
Remember, there was nothing wrong with this giraffe. He was perfectly healthy. Zookeepers called him Marius, and zoo administrators say they killed him because he had almost the same genes as other giraffes in the zoo. It didn't work for the breeding plan that they had.
PEREIRA: Why do they insist that they had to kill the animal at all, and why on Earth would they do it in such a fashion with an audience and let children see this giraffe get ripped apart.
BERMAN: So we are joined now by Jack Hanna. You, of course, know who Jack Hanna is. He is the host of "Jack Hanna's Into the Wild" and "Jack Hanna's Wild Countdown."
Jack, thanks for being with us, first of all. I've got to say this seems so incredibly outrageous, killing a healthy giraffe, doing it in front of kids.
What possible justification could there be?
JACK HANNA, HOST, "INTO THE WILD" (via telephone): Well, I can tell you now. I did a big program last night here in Florida for the Columbus Zoo, where I've been for 35 years, been doing this for 40 years.
I was up until 2:00 in the morning, got up at 5:30 in the morning, and I'm a pretty fun-going person. You've seen me do TV.
But this right now is the most abominable, insensitive, ridiculous thing I've have heard of.
Now, they talk about genetics. OK, let's say the animal -- genetically, there was nothing wrong with him, just they had too many of them.
If they had that then, why, number one, did they keep breeding animals? That's number one. Number two, I don't care if it's the European Associates of Zoos, the American Association of Zoos, the Columbus Zoo in Columbus, Ohio, would never, ever do anything like this.
Even if the animal -- sometimes I might have had an impure gene. Yes, we do have problem with overpopulation in our zoos. Yes, that's true with some animals. What do you do, though, then? You find a home for it.
Right now, I personally, the Columbus Zoo would, too, but if I had to sell something, and I'm not just saying this to be patted on the back, if I had to sell anything I had to get the $100,000 to ship him over to our country and put him in the zoo, if the zoo didn't have room, I would have room on a little farm I have in Montana, 40 acres.
Not just me. I understand there was big offers made to help this giraffe.
Now, listen, nothing was wrong with the animal. Let's say they do something with the animal, something was wrong with it. Let's say, by themselves, that's up to them what they want to do with the giraffe.
But (inaudible) shoot it, or whatever, they shot it, then they cut it up in front of people. I saw the picture. I have not seen the article. I kept myself away from them.
I'm sitting here like you going, what in the world is going on? Someone did this analogy. I did not do this. Someone said, is Hitler running the animal world in Europe? I did not say that, OK? Let me repeat that.
I'm not being -- I'm just saying, yes, these are animals. It's a beautiful creature that represents a beautiful animal. They are trying to teach young people about why we have zoological parks.
What does this teach you? What has it taught you, by the way?
PEREIRA: And, Jack, I can hear the anger. And I think so many people echo your sentiments.
We have seen a lot of reaction and outcry, online, Twitter, online, et cetera, people's comments coming in that they can't believe this was done at all, and the fact that they did it with an audience and in front of children.
Now, they spoke to us. There was one comment that they said that they did this as sort of a teaching lesson.
Do you see there is any aspect of this that could have been viewed as educational?
HANNA (via telephone): Not that thing at all. I don't see any education in it number one.
Now, someone said to me this morning, called me up and said, Jack, maybe -- all of us eat hamburger. Sometimes we bake it. Sometimes we do things and everything, but that's humane, I guess.
You know, the point is, I don't get involved in that. The point is, and education-wise in a zoo, I see none whatsoever other than, is that what we do with our excess animals? The answer at my zoo is no. We'll find a home. We have a place in called the wild (ph), 10,000 acres.
FEMALE: A refuge or something.
HANNA: We've offered these to people who have an overpopulation of animals to bring them out to us. So that's all we can do. But I can tell you now, education wise -- look at my show on TV. You know something? We show the hunt only one time. And that was my mistake. We showed a cheetah on a hunt. We showed the takedown. And we are not to show -- we do not show -- I know it is natural. I have been (inaudible) people in this world. I've seen all kinds of hunts when the final thing takes place.
One thing, we have families watching our show. Yesterday, they see the last part of it. And only one time did I see an impala that was partially consumed by a cheetah. And that was my fault on our show, not because I'm not trying to be, oh, this Jack Hanna not to show anything. I know what's natural in nature. I'm not an idiot. But I don't need to have some two and three and 6-year-old which cannot understand at that age. They don't understand nature. They haven't been to Africa.
And so, that's what we do at the zoos. We try to educate people at zoos of what happens in the wild. And then there's a logical role. We're trying to teach them while we have zoos. We have about 98 (ph) percent our animals in zoos throughout this country from other zoos. They're not from the wild. If I can get a giraffe, for example, I'll take my veterinarian over there. I'll get the sperm or the eggs from the animal and I can bring it back. (inaudible) But they have to cull certain animals to get help with that gene pool too.
(CROSSTALK)
PEREIRA: Jack, we're gonna have to -- obviously, you feel very strongly about this. And we understand. We know the work you have done to educate people about wildlife. We certainly appreciate you joining. You're very passionate about the topic, and I know many people --
HANNA: I'm sorry I have to be this way. But that's --
PEREIRA: No, no, no, no. We want you to tell us how you are feeling. And you certainly did that. Jack Hanna, thanks so much for joining us.
BERMAN: Well, you can hear it in his voice. I was wondering was something lost in translation here? Not according to Jack Hanna.
PEREIRA: Well, and it brings up a whole bigger discussion about how we treat animals in captivity and why do we do it to begin with? You know? That's an argument animal activists have been saying for many years.
BERMAN: It was great to hear from Jack on this.
