A disturbing look into the weird logic of some animal rights activists.
Ok this is got to be the most disturbing story I've heard about in a while, animal rights activists are clamoring for a polar bear cub to be killed!
A fluffy polar bear cub called Knut was recently born to a zoo in Berlin, he is the first polar bear cub to survive in the past thirty years. Well hear is where it gets interesting.
After he was born on December 5 last year, his mother, Tosca, a grumpy 20-year-old former East German circus bear, put Knut and his brother out to die on a rock in the bear pit. Keepers scooped the cubs out of the compound with a fishing net and placed them in an incubator.
Ok, now can anyone tell me they wouldn't do the same thing? I mean a couple of baby polar bears going to die, even my cynical butt would try to make sure they get some help.
Only Knut survived, and was fed with human milk and cod-liver oil every half hour. In the Arctic, the minus 35C (-31F) temperatures destroy viruses and bacteria and make it easier for cubs to live. Knut has been brought up as a pampered baby. He is fed chicken purée, was given his own Christmas tree, sleeps with a teddy bear, plays with a football and his pony-tailed keeper strums Elvis Presley songs to improve his mood. The keeper, Thomas Doerflein, says the cub falls asleep when he sings You’re the Devil in Disguise.
Ok while it sounds like the bear is a bit pampered, this really doesn't warrant him a death sentence.
"Hand-feeding is not appropriate to the species and is a grave violation of the animal protection laws," said Frank Albrecht, an animal rights campaigner. "Legally speaking, the zoo should kill the baby bear. Otherwise it is condemning the bear to a dysfunctional life and that too is a breach of the law."
Legally speaking? They want to kill the baby polar bear because... there hand feeding him? Does anyone not see something a bit... wrong about that sentiment?
The director of Aachen zoo, Wolfram Ludwig, also believes the Berliners made the wrong decision in saving Knut: "It is not correct to bottle-feed a small polar bear. He will always be fixated on his keeper and will never grow to be a proper polar bear." Knut, he argues, should have been killed when Tosca rejected him. "One should have had the courage to kill him much earlier."
Well there you have it folks, the polar bear cub should be put down because he won't grow up to be a "proper" polar bear.
I would be interested in hearing comments on this, I really am wondering how someone will defend this type of action.
News Story
The cub they want killed, isn't that nice?