Is It Ethically Wrong To Kill Animals In Captivity

Barbara J. King (2015) wrote, that it is estimated that between 3000 and 5000 healthy animals killed in captivity per year. These numbers are steadily rising by the day. This is absolutely unnecessary. The reasons these animals are dying are just idiotic. It is objectively wrong to kill healthy animals in captivity. Most of the killing of these innocent animals is is done by The Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark. One of the most heinous acts of this zoo is the killing of “Marius” a 2 year old giraffe. According to The New York Times (2014), the 2 year old giraffe was killed by a shotgun blast, had a public autopsy, and was then fed to lions. The zoo officials said they had to kill Marius because his genes were well represented among the other giraffes

First of all, more than half the animals in these programs are not endangered. Usually any animals that do not fit in the breeding program, are more then often killed. That is why the 4 lions that were mentioned before were killed. Even if they have bred before in the zoo, if they do not fit into the program they are killed.

The breeding process usually goes something like this; the two animals are put in the same enclosure, are monitored very closely, and are controlled by many numbers and statistics. This is to prevent inbreeding and other genetic issues. This is one of the few humane processes that these zoo utilize.

What is euthanization? The term euthanasia comes from the Greek terms "eu" meaning good and "thanatos" meaning death. It is a relatively quick and painless death. The animals are usually tranquilized before being injected with a needle full of substance called “pentobarbital”. This substance depressed the central nervous system, which causes the animal to feel no pain, then it overdoses on the pentobarbital, and easily

They unjustly shot a two year old giraffe with a shotgun. Then before being fed to lions, they dissected the young giraffe in front of a large crowd of people. They did not allow children to attend the dissection, the Copenhagen Zoo is quoted saying, “when looked upon, the killing can be pretty cruel.” So it's too cruel to to show children, but it was not too cruel to kill the animal in the first place. All of the animals I have mentioned so far did not have to die. A simple and easy way to solve all these problems is to just relocate the animals. For example, many zoos offered to take in Marius, the two year old giraffe that was killed and fed to lions. It would be relatively easy to just move the lions into separate habitats, and the young bear cub.

An argument can be made that the natural structure of the zoo will be disrupted if certain animals are allowed to remain in the zoo. Zoos are always looking to take in more animals. It’s not like it would cost much to relocate these animals. The young one especially did not deserve to be killed. It is horrible that most of these killing could be solved so simply. It is just the sheer laziness and tight pockets of these