Predators at a zoo in Denmark may quickly be feasting on new donations from the general public — their pets.
Aalborg Zoo, which sits on the outskirts of the town of the identical identify within the Scandinavian nation’s northwest, put out a name Thursday for undesirable animals on its social media channels.
Donated pets will probably be “gently euthanized” by educated employees after which used as “fodder” to care for the well-being of predators, it mentioned, alongside a photograph exhibiting a lynx baring its enamel.
Rooster, rabbits and guinea pigs can be welcome as meals for its meat-eaters, the submit mentioned.
The submit echoed an analogous enchantment that appeared on the zoo’s web site earlier this yr, which additionally referred to as for horses to be donated as long as they had been no taller than 4 ft 10 inches, wholesome and never handled for sickness up to now 30 days.
Horse homeowners can get hold of a tax deduction for the worth of the animal, it mentioned.
Zoos have a “duty to mimic the pure meals chain” for carnivores that want entire prey for a searching expertise just like that within the wild, the submit mentioned.
“When you’ve got a wholesome animal that has to depart right here for varied causes, be at liberty to donate it to us,” it added. “We guarantee pure habits, diet and well-being of our predators.”
The submit shortly sparked on-line debate drawing criticism from some quarters.
“The concept a zoo, of all locations, is encouraging folks to drop off their animals to be killed and fed to lions and tigers is, to me, extremely disturbing,” one consumer wrote on Fb.
A number of telephone calls to the zoo from NBC Information went unanswered, however in an replace to its unique submit Tuesday, the zoo mentioned it had closed the feedback part.
“We perceive that the submit arouses feelings and curiosity, however hateful and malicious rhetoric just isn’t vital — and we encourage everybody to keep up a respectful tone,” the zoo wrote.
It isn’t extraordinary for animals to be fed to predators after they’ve died in a zoo or culled from wholesome animal populations.
In 2014, Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark’s capital courted controversy when it killed an 18-month-old giraffe referred to as Marius with a bolt gun and fed him to the lions, saying the animal was “undesirable.”
A web based petition with 1000’s of signatures failed to save lots of him and the zoo mentioned on the time that Marius had been euthanized to keep away from inbreeding.
