On Sunday February 9th, 2014 a healthy, 2-year-old giraffe was killed in the Copenhagen Zoo. The zoo claimed they killed Marius, the giraffe, because it shared too many genes with other giraffes in the zoo and they were afraid of inbreeding. Despite the many offers from other zoos to take in the giraffe and the thousands of signatures on a "Save Marius" petition, the zoo still shot the giraffe, skinned it, dismembered it and fed it to lions. All while children were watching. This cruel act of violence easily could have been avoided and was completely unneccesary. The life of a baby giraffe could have been saved and the minds of young children could have been left unscarred. We want the Copenhagen Zoo to publicly promise that they will never put down a healthy or even curably ill animal ever again. It may be too late for Marius but it is not too late for every other animal in that zoo. For more information visit http://www.cbsnews.com/news/danish-zoo-staff-get-death-threats-after-giraffe-killing/ ;