From the Jan. 16, 2017 New Yorker
My father was Danish. Rorby is a Danish name. This makes me none to proud of that fact. Not only do I think this is appalling on so many levels, I also don't think it's something children should be exposed to. I remember too clearly the day my first dog died. My Yankee parents moved to Florida and didn't know about heartworms. I was five when Butch and I raced up our porch stairs and he fell over dead. I was 9 or 10 when Mom took me to see the circus. We stopped to watch the elephants parade through downtown Orlando. Right in front of us, one of them collapsed and died. We never went to that circus, or any other.
I write realistic animal stories, but I sure as hell wouldn't want a child of mine exposed to this inhumane practice. I'd like to continue laboring under the belief zoos teach us to respect and value animals, and are a refuge for the endangered. This practice, even if necessary on a financial level, teaches children to view animals as something less than we humans are. Teaching disrespect for nature only adds to our egocentric view of the world and is at the root of habitat destruction and the loss of animal (and plant) species.
SHAME ON THE DANES.
Killing Animals at the Zoo
By Ian Parker
At Danish zoos, surplus animals are euthanized—and dissected before the public
"One afternoon last January, two years after staff members at the Copenhagen Zoo surprised many people by shooting a healthy young giraffe, dissecting it in public, and then feeding its remains to lions, another Danish zoo was preparing for a public dissection."
"The Copenhagen Zoo has considered, and rejected, the idea of breeding animals that could be supplied to visitors as meat."
I guess we can consider this a moral high mark. GR