In the following I have tried to sum up the essence of the extensive debate that has been running lately in order to address the many misguided views that has come from the opposition (i.e. the people who agrees with the recent killing of the young giraffe Marius.)

(This is written in English so the readers from the international community also can participate. Please excuse if the are some misspellings etc. - English is not my first language.)

1. The main argument from Mr. Bengt Holst and his like has from the beginning been race purification and genetic maintenance within the Giraffe population. (How far this idea stretches beyond Giraffes would be interesting to know – does it include humans also?)
For starters the argument has a very distasteful ring to it and immediately make one recall the sick ideology and atrocities made by the Nazi regime during WW2.
Why do many people despise those ideas? The reasons are simple:
Every body wants to live – also the unwanted, handicapped or genetically impure. It is the very foundation of survival and thus the basic rule of nature which we all must accept and respect. Therefore if people like Bengt Holst wants to play God and decide who is worthy to live and who is not they go against nature itself.
Further more: There are nobody on this planet that will ever fit the specified race hygienic standards than the specifier themselves and thus it is egoism in the most extreme ice cold form. The specifier argues for a genetically cleanup and by that no 'impure' organisms can exist and thus the world will be a good place in their minds. A good, sound and just world (according to them) where nobody gets their chance to live if they do not fit into the program! (There ought to be a red warning light flashing now but for some people it is plain and simple logic. One of them is obviously Bengt Holst)
In the Marius case the direct consequence was termination after 1.5 years of life since he didn't fit the desired genetic profile. Other zoological gardens offered to take him and give him a full life which always should have the highest priority. They even promised that his genes would not 'mess-up' the specified 'pristine' gene pool, but this was not allowed by Bengt Holst even though it made perfect sense and would not jeopardize the 'pure bloodline'.

Conclusion: There was no justified reason for the killing of Marius giraffe other than to satisfy a sick scientific urge to cut open and dissect a perfectly healthy animal. No important new knowledge was gained by this doing. Only a few dumb ignorant spectators got to see something that they could have seen on photos in a book.
The reason for the illogical and arrogant decision to kill Marius is apparently incomprehensible but there are reasons which I will speculate on next.

2. Why are so many younger animals executed in zoological gardens every year?
In Copenhagen zoo it is approx. 30 animals per year according to Bengt Holst himself. Imagine how many it is in all the zoo's in the world...
One reason could very well be that baby animals sells tickets – plain and simple!
It is a solid fact that the zoological gardens exploit the event when a baby seal, monkey, tiger or giraffe is born. The zoo's press secretary eagerly invite television stations that willingly participate in their hunger for a light and easy digestible positive stories to round off their evening news. The infant is displayed to the public unaware that it is cynically used in a devious money making scam. But remember, the scam only goes on as long as it attracts parents with children. Then after a while the baby animal grows up and does not seen so cute anymore even though its a fine, beautiful and healthy beast. At that point the zoo management has a final use for it. Some 'ingenious bean-counter' in the zoo has figured out a business opportunity that can't be passed by – public execution to feed the blood thirsty psychopaths in every population (this part was left out by Cph. Zoo but probably considered). However, the 'brilliant' idea does not stop there. The poor animals body can also be cut to peaces so the an autopsy can be performed, on a Sunday of course, so all the children can get their first lesson in how to deal with genetically unwanted living beings. These children can then be the next generation that enter the biology study and continue the 'good' slaughtering deed in the name of race purification.
Finally the leftovers from the animal can be used as food for the carnivores in the animal prison which incidentally is the only thing that make any sense at all since a poor cows of horses life in this way will temporarily be spared.
To top it all off a memorial plate in brass probably will be placed in the zoo's garden in remembrance of the heroic 1.5 year old Giraffe or other animal that gave its life to science. (Excuse my irony and sarcasm but I think these people are so morally and ethically way out of line that they are fit for sociopathic treatment.)

Conclusion: It can by no means be morally or ethically justified to kill any young healthy animal for any reason. And that goes for all animals including cows, pigs, chickens and human beings.
Yes, humans are also just an animal. A rather sophisticated one with all the devious abnormalities that follows, but never the less an animal. Furthermore a very bloodthirsty one that has multiplied into over 7 billion compared to for instance only 400 Sumatra tigers. We, the humans, are the main problem of this planet. We exploit, pollute and generally rape this beautiful Earth while acting like God himself deciding who of the few other animals are allowed to live and who must die. We start wars on the basis of stupid religion, resource shortage, hunger for power etc. and completely fail to see that we and our attitude are the only problem. Nature has regulated itself perfectly fine until we came about. Now we convince ourself that nature can not cope without us. We are like the two flees sitting on the back of an elephant arguing who owns it.
As you maybe can see it is us that need to change our ideas and attitude before it is too late.

3. But how should the zoo be able to feed the carnivores like tigers and lions if no other animals must be killed?
Well, maybe it completely wrong to have these mighty animals prisoned in small iron-bared cages in the first place. They belong in open land or huge forests where they can hunt for food themselves and live the life they where designed for by nature. Zoo's are man made artificial environment that can be directly compared to circuses where animals are imprisoned and displayed for one thing only: The amusement of the animal called homo sapience with no regard for the psychological welfare of the displayed being. Just take a trip to the zoo and look at the cats there. They wander restlessly back and forth in there cages, grinding deep paths in the soil along the iron bars obviously dreaming of a life beyond their prison.

Conclusion: Zoo's are like rarity cabinets belonging in the 18th century and should have been phased out a long time ago. One of the debaters on this website wrote that after he saw wild animals in their natural environment on the African savanna or Indonesian rainforrests he could not enter a zoo anymore to see the misery displayed there. This was a very sane observation and one we should all think about and act upon.
On the short term zoo's like the one in Cph should be decommissioned as fast as possible. New large scale parks should be established like 'Knuthenborg safari park in Denmark or 'Long Leat' near bath in UK or Kruger national park in South Affrica and many more. The parks economy should be guaranteed by the state since it is the state and thereby us all who have allowed and decided that wild animals should be kept there. It is every citizens and guests duty and responsibility through tax and admission fee to care for the animals within the park so that the animals within should get the best possible care and the longest possible life.
On the long term national parks should be established on a much greater scale than today. They should be protected by UN and wild animals should only be kept there to ensure their natural way of life.
You might think this is a wild illusion or a crazy fantasy, but so was the ending of the USSR, the law against slavery in USA, the turnover of the South African apartheid regime, the ideas and doings of Gandhi etc.
So, do not loose faith! Wonders can happen and has happened when people really want them to. It may take a long time to get there but with at steady pressure of legal means and sensible arguments we will get there eventually.

I hope, with this contribution to the debate, that those who do wrong will try to think different and that those who think as I do has gotten their faith strengthened. It is not the an ice cold business managers ideas that should govern a zoo. Nor the misguided eagerness of an aggressive and enterprising scientist. Both of those kind of people are like computer-controlled robots with no feelings, remorse or consciousness and it is these kind of types who has created much of the evils of this world. In some extend they are necessary, but nowadays they have gained way too much power and influence. It is therefore time to look for a new attitude towards life in all aspects.
The killing of Marius giraffe was a sad event in a sea of wrong doings which got many people up of the chairs and into the debate. Let's all continue to argue on his and all other animals behalf so the killing of him was not completely in vain.

I only wish well.

#532: - This is why the killing of Marius was wrong:

Wow....so well written and I totally agree....Thanks...