Marius the giraffe killed and fed to lions at Copenhagen Zoo: Those cuddly, compassionate and progressive Scandinavians who love Mother Earth are doing a pretty good job of making themselves look more their viking ancestors with the news that Denmark's Copenhagen Zoo killed and butchered 2-year-old Marius, a young healthy giraffe whose only crime was having the wrong genes.

Taking advice from the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, it did did this to prevent inbreeding as the zoo's giraffe breeding program already has enough animals with similar genes, administrators say.

Their elegant solution? Zookeepers used a high-pressure bolt gun to the juvenile giraffe's head, killing him. Some of the meat was then fed to the zoo's lions.

The story has generated vast media coverage mainly for the fact that a 20,000-strong petition to save the animal was ignored and the knowledge that Copenhagen zoo also turned down adoption requests from other zoos and an offer of half-a-million euro purchase offer from one individual.

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