Animal Rights Activist Says Knut Should Be Killed
Knut, the 3 month old polar bear being raised by Berlin zoo keeper Thomas Dörflein, after being abandoned by his mother in December of 2006 is all over the news again. This time however, the news is pretty weird.
Bild Daily, the newspaper that runs almost daily pictures and stories of Knut quoted Frank Albrecht, an animal rights activist, as saying, “If a polar bear mother rejected the baby, then I believe the zoo must follow the instincts of nature.” Albrecht also said among other things, “In the wild, it would have been left to die. Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws.” And, “the zoo must kill the bear.”
I’m appalled that some other groups have actually agreed. In fact, it turns out that in December at Leipzig city zoo a baby sloth bear that was abandoned by its mother was killed by lethal injection!
Here’s my take on it: ignoring my immediate nurturing impulse, the fact is we have a species that are under threat of extinction and with Knut, there’s the possibility that later he’ll breed more polar bears.
Boy, I thought animal rights groups were Knut’s friends. With friends like these, he doesn’t need any enemies.
What do you think? Are you for or against killing this little bear and why?
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