Toledo Zoo: We would never feed a giraffe to lions - WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC

People around the world are upset after a Denmark zoo killed a healthy giraffe and fed it to the lions in front of children. The executive director of the Toledo Zoo is now assuring people that would never happen here.

Marius was a 2-year-old giraffe at the Copenhagen Zoo. Although he was healthy, the zoo says they killed Marius to prevent inbreeding. They then fed him to the lions in front of the public, saying it was meant as a display of scientific knowledge.

But that display has prompted a huge outcry. People in the Toledo area love the giraffes and other animals at the Toledo Zoo. Executive Director Jeff Sailer says the zoo works with its curators and veterinarians to make sure every animal produced here has a home, and would never meet the same fate as Marius.

"Some of the animals here are valued for their genetic makeup," Sailer said. "Some are valued for what they mean to the community. Some are valued for their uniqueness that they provide to the visitors that come here. And they all have the intrinsic value of being living things…We're here to help people understand animals, and we really want them to take that caring home with them."

The Toledo Zoo has procedures in place to make sure if an animal no longer serves a purpose here, it has a good home to go to and will not be killed.

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