Zoo Asks People to Donate Their Unwanted Pets to Feed the Predators: 'Nothing Goes To Waste'

Roll a camera across the homes in Denmark. You may probably be puzzled after noticing that pets like dogs, pigs, and cats are slumped in crannies, shooting suspicious stares at their owners. They are wondering whether they would be the next ones to end up on the plate of a lion or a tiger. Aalborg Zoo (@aalborgzoo) recently stirred an uproarious debate announcing that it was requesting donations for pets like chickens, rabbits, hens, guinea pigs, and even baby horses to “imitate the natural circle of life” and feed the predators that would otherwise hunt these little prey in the wild. The announcement, though rational, has jolted many.

Deep in the heart of northern Denmark’s Jutland island, there’s a building carved in shimmery glass and chocolate brown stone. Inside this building unfolds a striking screenplay of the bittersweet circle of life. Here, predators like lions, lynxes, and tigers feed on a diet of carcasses squeezed from the bodies of local pets who are “gently euthanized.” After the Danish zoo shared the details of this “euthanization” project, the internet erupted in an affray, with some of them even becoming furious at the thought of donating and killing innocent pets. Many of them are even calling out the zoo for spreading this “malicious rhetoric.”

The zoo, however, has initiated this project driven by a far-sighted motive. The project, they said, stems from the responsibility it holds to imitate the natural food chain of the animals and smaller livestock, "which make up an important part of the diet of our predators." Even if they don’t euthanize the pets consciously, these predators would go on to hunt and prey upon them in the wild. But when the zoo consciously adopts the practice of killing the pets for the platters of these animals, it’s like mimicking the circle of life with a pinch of salt sprinkled into it.

“That way, nothing goes to waste, and we ensure natural behavior, nutrition, and well-being of our predators,” the zoo explained. In conversation with The Guardian, Dan Ashe of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums told the outlet that people are likely to find the word “pet” as potentially shocking in this announcement. Ideally, a pet is supposed to be nurtured and cared for, not donated and euthanized for predatory animals. Yet, the project hasn’t been met with mixed reactions, most of which are negative, from pet owners, animal lovers, and science experts. Clifford Warwick, a UK-based consultant biologist and medical scientist, grunted that “The entire thing is bizarre and wrong.” He added that this kind of a step “devalues the lives of pets” and overall, it’s a “horrendous devaluation of animal life.”

Elsewhere on the internet, many people are finding the step barbaric and dastardly cruel. Many of them are hollering in rage that something is rotten in Denmark. “What's next, people?” One viewer ranted in fury on a YouTube clip posted by ITV News. “Absolutely disgusting that a zoo would ask the public to give their unwanted pets, rabbits, etc, to euthanize and feed their zoo animals. Pathetic and a disgrace,” said @user-sh9gj6mw7n.

@moonjg4418 said, “Next up: Denmark zoo asks for deceased family members and babies to feed to their animals.” In another comment, the user recalled the 2017 episode when Copenhagen zoo killed a giraffe to feed a family of lions, and then two weeks later, it killed these lions too, per the BBC. And so, for the pets living in Denmark homes, this project is akin to a horror story, and they don’t know whether they are the next candidate to be slaughtered. But sadly, when looked at from a wider lens, this is a contemporary simulation of what already happens in the wild. Maybe there is another way to carve out this entire horror story. No one knows for sure.

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