German Zoo Facing Backlash After Killing 12 Healthy Baboons
HuffPost
A zoo in the German city of Nuremberg says it has killed 12 baboons despite protests, capping a saga rooted in concerns that the zoo had too little space to house a growing group of the animals.
BERLIN (AP) — A zoo in the German city of Nurember g said it killed 12 baboons on Tuesday despite protests, capping a saga rooted in concerns that the zoo had too little space to house a growing group of the animals.
The Tiergarten Nürnberg zoo first announced plans to kill baboons it didn’t have space for in February 2024. It has said that it examined offers to take in some of the animals but was unable to make any of them work.
The plans drew criticism from animal protection groups. They also drew protests at the zoo, which said on Monday that it would have to start preparing to kill baboons. On Tuesday morning, it announced that it was closing for the day for unspecified “operational reasons.”
On Tuesday afternoon, police said seven activists climbed over a wall into the zoo, and one woman glued her hands to the ground. The group was detained a few meters (yards) inside the entrance.
Shortly afterward, the zoo said it had killed 12 baboons. The deputy director, Jörg Beckmann, said the zoo had chosen animals that weren’t pregnant females or part of studies, and that they were shot. Samples were taken for research purposes, and the bodies were then to be fed to the zoo’s predators.
