German zoo officials decided to save a polar bear cub rejected by it’s mother. Now, some animal rights activists are saying it should be allowed to die:
BERLIN, Germany (AP) — Berlin Zoo’s abandoned polar bear cub Knut looks cute, cuddly and has become a front-page media darling, but an animal rights activist insisted Monday he would have been better off dead than raised by humans.
“Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws,” animal rights activist Frank Albrecht was quoted as saying by the mass-circulation Bild daily, which has featured regular photo spreads tracking fuzzy Knut’s frolicking.
“The zoo must kill the bear.”
When Knut — or “Cute Knut,” as the 8.7 kilogram (19 pound) bear has become known — was born last December, his mother ignored him and his brother, who later died. Zoo officials intervened, choosing to raise the cub themselves.
Apparently, animal rights really boil down to the right to die.
March 20th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Too many animal right activists are off the wall. Rather than work to protect various animals and their environments so the animals can survive naturally this activist is advocating killing yet another member of what soon may be either an endangered or extinct species. I do not understand this thought pattern and it certianly does little to help their cause.
March 21st, 2007 at 10:38 am
Okay, we are missing the whole point of zoos here! Nowadays, a zoo’s function to save its animals, not kill them off because it might have happened that way in the wild.
Initially zoos were to bring wild animals within “safe” reach of the public. As time passed, it became clear that they needed to become a refuge (of sorts) for endangered species. So nowadays, zoos’ functions are to protect its animals & especially their endangered species.
If we followed the animal rights activists line of thought, all of the animals in the zoos should be either freed back into the wild or killed off, since potentially they could have died in the wild while living there!
Until certain people in our world stop killing off our animal population by poaching or destroying their environment, especially endangered ones, it is the responsibility of others (and this includes zoos) to try to save them as best they can. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s the best one we have at the moment.
While I believe in the protection of animals AND their environments, these activists are off-base–this is the zoo’s business & unless the cub is being mistreated, the activists should stay out of it!
March 21st, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I am in total agreement with Renee S.
March 22nd, 2007 at 4:46 pm
animal live longer in zoos. they are guaranteed food. they’re guaranteed to be treated for anything big or small and they wont get killed by predators or hunters. If i was an animal id want to live in a zoo
have you noticed when people protest for animals how many animals get hurt or even killed by the protesters
That doesn’t make any sense!!!
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:38 pm
This poor cub has done nothing wrong and it is sad the mother does not want it. but it is no reason to kill it, i never thought the animals rights people would be so crazy and ignorant in this matter! for the zoo…you keep up the good work and keep loving that cub and thank you for taking care of him and ignoring the ideas and comments of the “so called” animal rights activists.
March 24th, 2007 at 12:12 am
This is ridiculous. Thousands of species on this planet die off every day. We should be doing every possible thing we can to save them. I suppose this animal rights expert would also have us kill of every abandoned human baby rejected by its mother - what is the difference? Let?s save every life we can.
March 29th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Whatever you believe about whether or not zoos should exist, this baby cub has a right to survive if he can. If humans are willing and able to help, then they are simply giving the cub the choice.
Any “animal rights” activists arguing that killing the cub preserves the cub’s rights more than the “humiliation of being raised by hand” is merely substituting their own view for the cub’s. In THEIR opinion, it would be better to die than be raised by humans. However, a true animal rights advocate should fight for the right of the animal to choose, even if that animal is a tiny baby cub.
The cub is not being force-fed…he is being bottle-fed. He is choosing to eat, rather than die. That is one of the most fundamental choices an animal can make.
In the same way that a dying human patient has the right to eat and try to survive as long as possible, or refuse nourishment and die, this cub should have the same basic right.
The zoo staff is letting the cub choose to live or die, and this cub chose to live…animal rights activists need to respect the cub’s choice.