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Some of the
youngsters held their noses as zookeepers methodically sliced up
the cat, the year after the public dismemberment of a dead
giraffe at another Danish zoo triggered an equally fierce
debate.
"It smelled really bad but it was exciting to see what the lion
looks like inside. It's cool that it was so similar to a human,"
said 11-year-old Sofie Beyer, visiting the zoo in Odense,
Denmark's third largest town.
Staff gave a running commentary as they displayed the cub's
stomach. They have regularly defended the display, saying it
would educate children about animals and the realities of life
and death.
"Butchers!" wrote one commenter on the zoo's Facebook page,
which included details of the dissection.
"Exposing young people to animal dissection as 'science' can
foster a callousness toward animals later on in life. Many
countries are watching what you are doing with disgust ... You
need to stop," wrote another.
A third member of the public noted that the only children "who
were traumatised were the ones who did not get seats for the
event."
Most of the complaints were written in English while the
supportive posts tended to be in Danish - suggesting there was
less squeamishness in a country with a thriving agrarian sector,
and where pigs outnumber humans two-to-one.
The cub was killed in February this year because her genes were
already common in Europe, so might have weakened the gene pool
if she had gone on to breed. The zoo declined to say whether she
had been given a name.
'Marius', an 18-month-old giraffe who was also slaughtered to
prevent in-breeding, was dissected in Copenhagen's zoo last
year. Staff received death threats.
(Reporting by Mikael Nilsson; Writing by Sabina Zawadzki;
Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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