A second Danish Zoo is considering putting down one of its giraffes despite public outrage over another giraffe being slaughtered and fed to lions.
The Danish Jyllands Park Zoo said it might put down one of its giraffes, which by coincidence is also named Marius, like the giraffe the Copenhagen Zoo slaughtered, Danish news agency Ritzau reports.
Copenhagen Zoo staff members have received death threats from the public after the zoo killed an 18-month-old healthy male giraffe.
The reason they gave for the killing was that the animal’s genes were already well-represented in an international breeding program that aims to maintain a healthy giraffe population in European zoos.
Zoo keeper Janni Lojtved Poulsen told Ritzau that the Jyllands Park Zoo might put down its seven-year-old Marius if the zoo manages to acquire a female giraffe, which is probable.
The zoo also has a younger male called Elmer.
“We can’t have two males and one female. Then there will be fights,” Poulsen said.
She said that it might be possible to find another place for the giraffe to live, but that the probability is small. Like its namesake in Copenhagen, Jyllands Park Zoo’s Marius is considered unsuitable for breeding.
“If the breeding program co-ordinator decides that he should be put down, then that’s what we’ll do,” Poulsen said.
“Many places abroad where they do not do this, the animals live under poor conditions, and they are not allowed to breed either. We don’t think that’s OK,” she said.
The giraffe at Copenhagen Zoo was dissected in front of crowds or onlookers, including children, and afterwards some of the carcass was fed to lions.
Other parts were sent to research projects in Denmark and abroad for study.
This article originally appeared on News.com.au.