Should We Be Feeding Carnivores Our Pets?

You know that whole thing about people in Denmark being super polite?

That stereotype doesn’t translate to zoos there. The Aalborg Zoo has recently requested that pet owners donate any animals who might be nearing the end of their lives to be used as their chow for the carnivore exhibits. The bodies would be delivered to the zoo, the animals would be put to sleep, and then they would be torn apart by the lions and lynxes they would be fed to.

To be completely honest, I’m not crazy about this idea.

I definitely see where the zoo is coming from. If we lived in a completely rational and practical society, the logic would be pristine: If an animal is going to die soon, why not put them to use one last time and keep some other carnivores alive?

Alas, we don’t live in utopia. And there arise a lot of problems with feeding your old friends to zoo animals.

The first thing is affection.

As of writing, I currently have two pets. I’ve got a cat and a dog. Both are very important to me. If someone looks at them the wrong way, I will be sending them to the Aalborg Zoo. Some people love their pets way more than I do. So it would stand to reason that many people wouldn’t want to let their little creatures be torn apart by predators.

I suppose it’s also kind of macabre for a zoo to be encouraging euthanization. It’s better than feeding conscious animals to predators, but isn’t the whole point of zoos to preserve and protect certain animals? Well, that and profit, but that’s irrelevant.

Besides, shouldn’t zoos be responsible for providing their animals with food, anyway? I’m not a zookeeper, but I feel like it’s kind of akin to feeding your pets. It feels like it should be your responsibility, and not Susan next door, who owns that old, sick beagle. If you’re going to be running an establishment, you should be the one taking care of said establishment, especially if it involves living things.

Now, if zoos are accepting animal donations for exhibits, I have a couple of younger siblings that would do the trick…