Controversy erupts in German due to zoo killing dozen healthy Guinea baboons
(MENAFN) In Nuremberg, a southern German zoo faced significant backlash after deciding to euthanize 12 healthy Guinea baboons due to overcrowding in their enclosure. Following the culling, the animals were reportedly fed to predators within the zoo.
The decision sparked protests, with seven animal rights activists detained on Tuesday after they entered the Tiergarten Nürnberg zoo to oppose the move. One protester went as far as gluing her hands to the ground near the zoo’s entrance.
The zoo explained that the overcrowding had led to increased conflicts among the baboons and that no viable alternatives for relocating them were available. Christoph Maisack, leader of the German Legal Association for Animal Protection Law, criticized the justification, saying that allowing animals to breed naturally “cannot constitute such a reason” for killing them.
The Nuremberg zoo had announced the plan to cull some baboons last year after their population grew beyond 40, surpassing the capacity of 25 that the enclosure, built in 2009, could support. Attempts to send baboons to other zoos abroad failed as those facilities were also at full capacity, and contraceptive methods had not effectively controlled population growth.
On the morning of the cull, the zoo declared it would close for “operational reasons,” prompting demonstrators to climb over fences near the entrance, where they were arrested. Later, the zoo confirmed the baboons were euthanized; none of the animals were pregnant females or involved in scientific research. After being shot, the baboons’ bodies were used as food for the zoo’s carnivorous animals, with samples taken for study.
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