What in the world is going on at the Copenhagen, Denmark zoo?

The folks who run the place are killing animals to make room for other animals. First, it was a giraffe named Marius that zookeepers put down. Why? Because they wanted to make room for another male giraffe.

Now this week the zoo euthanized four lions — a breeding pair, male and female, and two cubs — to pave the way for a new male lion.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/26/world/europe/copenhagen-zoo-lions/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

I don’t get this.

Zoo officials say the killing of the lions was necessary because they were too old to produce more offspring; what’s more, the new male lion would have killed the cubs, which is normal in the wild when a male lion takes over a pride. Any cub that he doesn’t bring into the world is a goner. I’ve seen enough National Geographic and Discovery Channel specials to know that the law of the wild is brutal and without remorse at times.

Let’s wait a minute.

A zoo isn’t the wild, no matter how badly zookeepers want to make it seem so for the critters it keeps.

Aren’t there exchanges among zoos that would enable the Copenhagen zoo to send the lions elsewhere to make room for the big, bad male lion it wants to bring in? Zoo officials said they tried to place the lions in other locations “but there wasn’t any interest.”

Human interest being what it is, the Copenhagen zoo has just bought itself a bucket load of bad feelings from around the world — as it did when it killed Marius the giraffe, which reportedly was highly popular among young visitors to the zoo.

Zoos are supposed to be sanctuaries for animals that have been captured or in some cases rescued from the wild because — for whatever reason — they cannot fend for themselves. Copenhagen’s zoo, instead, seems to be turning itself into a killing zone.