Recently at the Copenhagen Zoo an 18 month old giraffe was shot and then a public autopsy was performed on him. Marius the giraffe was not sick, he simply could not be bred due to interbreeding laws. Holst, the zoo’s scientific director was offered a buy or trade for Marius by two zoos. A petition was also started that collected roughly 20,000 signatures. But the Copenhagen Zoo declined these offers and on February 10, 2014 Marius was slaughtered. The public autopsy was performed for any guest of the zoo(children included). The scientists not only ripped out the heart and vertebrae of this giraffe, but they also butchered the animal and fed the pieces of carcass to the lions in the zoo. (The following are two fiction stories based on this event.)
Part 1
Dear diary,
Today Nanny is taking me to the zoo! My very first zoo trip!! Nanny and I read all about the animals at the Copenhagen Zoo last week. I especially liked learning about the giraffes. There's a giraffe named Marius and he is eighteen months old. He has a bunch of funny shaped spots all over his body! Nanny says we can go see him first today! I'm really excited!
~~~
Oh, it was just dreadful! Nanny and I got there extra early and Marius wasn't even out yet. Then these two men brought him out. One man was in a yellow suit and had bread with him but the other man had this big scary gun with him. At first I didn't know why the men wanted to come play with Marius, but when nanny said it was time to go see the elephants I just couldn't leave. Marius had become my best friend. The man in the yellow suit gave him some rye bread. I happen to love rye bread too. And then it was just awful! The other man picked up his gun and just shot Marius in his head! He killed my new best friend! All I could hear was this really loud BOOM and then a bunch of screams and crying kids. i cried too. Nanny says that things like this happen at zoos sometimes. I think that is just….just awful!! Why would you kill a baby? The yellow suited man said we could all follow him. I made nanny carry me there since i was just too sad to manage to walk there. The two men dragged Marius’ body to this big platform in front of this cage thing that read “GIRAFFE” in big letters on it. After the body was laid down, more men came out to the platform. These men had big knives though. The men were already big and scary and the knives made it worse. They each walked over to a limb and pulled marius apart. First they cut off his arms, then his legs, then his neck. They chopped him up! The men had just shot him and now they were just going to cut him up! That man in the yellow suit is in charge I think. Well he is a bad man. He kills best friends. I hate that man. I think I want to have nanny call his mom and tell her about what he did. He should not get dessert after dinner. I dont think that man should have sweets ever again! Not even on his birthday! After I managed to calm down from seeing my best friend cut up into pieces, nanny said we could go see the lions. But those stupid lions were eating when we got there. Nanny made us leave the zoo as soon as she saw the lions. I don’t really know why. In the car on the way home I asked Nanny why we left so fast and she said very slowly “The lions were eating that giraffe…” THEY ATE MY BEST FRIEND!!! Those terrible men gave my best friend to the lions for dinner! They are evil! I don’t think they should ever have desserts ever again. Then they would be sad just like Marius would be if he found out he was dead. I really do love you Marius and I’m really sorry this happened.


Part 2

Salutations.
The most atrocious thing imaginable happened today. A young, healthy giraffe was slaughtered! The shameless scum that did this not only killed a harmless animal, but they cut him up right in front of children. Children! I was already against zoos, and now I can’t even fathom ever stepping foot in a place like that. What has happened to our world? We kill animals because we can and we show kids that it’s cool to murder animals. This needs to end. Hense the reason I run AOP(Animals on Protest). Slaughtering animals sheerly because you can is cruel, harsh, and most importantly, morally wrong! These “men” would never dare think of butchering up their pets to feed to the lions at the zoo, but when a giraffe they can’t mate comes along, he’s fair game for lion food. It would’ve almost been nicer to have just let Marius roam the lions den unprotected. This is what is seriously wrong with our world. I just would like to apologize to Marius the giraffe for the wrongs that were done unto him. I’m sorry we didn’t get to save you. Maybe you’ll be the spark to a change.