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A UK-based ex-zookeeper has spoken out on the “widespread” practice of zoos receiving donations of unwanted pets to feed to predator animals.
Plant Based News (PBN) social media manager Darrell Sawczuk, who went vegan while working at a UK zoo and now dedicates himself to raising awareness about the industry, was responding to the news that a zoo in Denmark has asked for donations of animals to feed its lions, tigers, and European lynxes.
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Aalborg Zoo, located in the north of the country, published an Instagram post last week requesting healthy chickens, rabbits, or guinea pigs, claiming they will be “gently euthanized” by trained staff. The zoo also asked for donations of horses, stating that “owners” of these animals may benefit from potential tax breaks.
The post caused outrage among the general public, and has been heavily reported on in the media. But, says Sawczuk, Aalborg Zoo is just one of many in the industry to carry out such requests, though the majority do it behind closed doors.
A widespread practice
“To the general public this is such a shocking story, and rightly so – it’s horrendous,” he told PBN. “However, as someone who has worked in UK zoos, I know that this is not uncommon.”
According to Sawczuk, it was a “regular occurrence” for people to drop off ex-pet horses to be fed to the animals at one zoo he worked at. Unlike at Aalborg Zoo, which has requested live animals to be euthanized in-house, animals dropped off at the zoo Sawczuk worked at would arrive already deceased. It would often fall to the zookeepers – including Sawczuk – to dismember the bodies and feed them to animals like tigers and lions.
“This is just one of many unethical practices which are commonplace within the zoo industry,” he said. “I would even go as far to say it is widespread. They just like to keep these things very quiet in a bid to protect their profits.”
Aalborg Zoo sparks controversy
Aalborg Zoo has stated that the practice of feeding healthy pets to predators is common in Denmark. A spokesperson claimed that the zoo has a “responsibility to imitate the natural food chain of the animals.” They added that small animals like rabbits and guinea pigs are an “important part” of the diets of predators kept by zoos, and that offering the animals complete with their fur and bones gives them – particularly European lynxes – “as natural a diet as possible.”
While it is true that these animals do make up a key part of the predators’ diets in the wild, Sawczuk doesn’t believe it makes the practice of feeding them pets ethical. Instead, he stresses that this only goes to show how unnatural it is for predators to be in zoos. Sawczuk, along with many animal rights advocates, is calling for an end to zoo captivity of animals.
“Of course carnivores need to eat other animals, but there is a big difference between a lynx hunting a rodent in their habitat and a zookeeper throwing a dead animal – who had no chance to defend themselves – into an enclosure,” he said. “If the predators weren’t in the zoo in the first place, there would be no need for healthy pets to be killed unnecessarily in this way. What Aalborg Zoo is asking – and what many other zoos across the planet are already doing – isn’t natural. All zoo animals belong in the wild.”
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