Swiss Zoo Kills Healthy Young Bear to Protect Him

And the killing goes on and on

During the past two months five zoo animals have been needlessly killed, and these events have really stirred up innumerable people, including those who never got involved in issues centering on animal protection. To wit, Marius, a young and healthy giraffe, was killed at the Copenhagen zoo because he was considered to be a disposable object because he didn't fit into the zoo's breeding program. Marius was killed despite another facility offering him sanctuary so that he could live out the rest of his life in peace and safety. I call the global concern that was generated by killing him "The Marius Effect."

As if killing Marius wasn't enough, two adult and two young lions were later killed at the same zoo "in the name of conservation and breeding" (see also). While the zoo claims the animals were euthanized, of course this wasn't euthanasia -- mercy killing -- but rather "zoothanasia," heartless and needless elimination conducted by zoos when animals are deemed to surplus beings who no longer are useful to them or are too difficult to house.

You did what? It's just too easy for zoos to kill animals and justify it "in the name of this or that"

Many others and I figured that these senseless killings would stop because of public pressure and because zoos would begin to re-evaluate how they would handle animals who they no longer needed and who were easy to kill. However, we were all wrong. This past Monday the Dählhölzli zoo in Bern, Switzerland, killed a young Russian brown bear cub because they were afraid he would be killed by his father who had previously killed one of his siblings the week before. Zoo administrators said they were "forced to subject 'Baby Bear 4' to euthenasia (sic) to prevent 'further distress and pain' to the cub, which was being batted around by the father bear." So, why not find another cage for him?

Zoo administrators also said they were "not planning to separate the parent bears to protect the remaining cub. While acknowledging the risk to the offspring, it said it wanted to keep the bears in as 'natural' an environment as possible." As if there is anything "natural" about keep these animals in a cage.

Anthrozoology and compassionate conservation can help us and the animals

Once again, these horrific and absolutely unnecessary killings need to be openly and vigorously protested and the people who justify them in one way or another need to be taken to task. Anthrozoologists interested in the study of human-animal interactions really need to get some studies going to learn about what motivates people to view other animals as disposable objects and then claim it's okay to kill them as if they're throwing away a piece of furniture or garbage.

Likewise, those people interested in compassionate conservation also need to continue to work to get people who are in charge of who lives and who dies to value the lives of individual animals. These individuals are not disposable objects but rather sentient beings who deserve the best lives we can give them when they are being held captive. That is the least we can do for individuals who we keep in cages and whose freedom to live their lives as they're meant to be lived has been taken away.

This post originally appeared on Psychology Today.