Zoo Encourages Public to Donate Unwanted Small Pets to Feed Predators https://share.google/DQyK1QslDNvwiqzSF

A zoo in Denmark has requested donations of "unwanted" pets (not sure if it's only locally, European, or global donations) to feed its larger carnivorous animals, to make their diets as close to what they would be like in the wild as possible.

While feeding these animals is an obvious necessity in order for them to survive and thrive, requesting "pets" for donation, as if they are disposable, unnecessary, or just animals with no emotional bonds with their respective owners, is a cold-hearted method of meeting this need. Even if the pets they are requesting are ones who are sick or will be euthanized anyway, or small animals such as chickens and guinea pigs who people might think don't form emotional attachments, pet owners who love their pets consider them family members, whose bodies are sacred and deserve burial or to be kept as ashes in their homes, extra close and not forgotten. Pet owners who do not love their animals and do not view them as worthy of dignity and respect are the ones who are rightly charged with animal cruelty and neglect and who lose the privilege of owning those animals. The animals are taken into rehabilitation and either adopted into families who love them, or if they are beyond medical aid, they are euthanized in a (hopefully) humane way, with loving staff by their side as they take their final breaths. Pets often look around for their owners for comfort when being euthanized, particularly dogs and cats, which, if this isn't stopped, could be the ones on the menu for the larger animals. It is possible that none of the animals will be euthanized beforehand; they could just be thrown in alive to the carnivores, living their final moments being terrified. And anyone who has watched the Dodo knows that animals of all kinds can form emotional or symbiotic bonds with the humans that care for them, down to butterflies and bees. 

On the one hand, some people might view this as "continuing the circle of life," letting animals, through their deaths, fuel the lives of other animals. After all, this is what happens every day in the wild. Diseased livestock animals with no hope of recovery I would say are one thing, and perhaps becoming food would be useful because they would become carion for detritivores anyway. While I see parallels between killing livestock by euthanasia to slaughter them for feed and the meat industry that I don't find humane, there is, at least, less of an emotional attachment to the specific individual animals. These animals have emotions and deserve better, but as a meat-eater, a participant in the demand side of the supply-and-demand chain of the meat industry, and someone who can compartmentalize eating animals for survival, I understand that this industry pays people, controls animal populations, and feeds people and other animals. However, due to the cruelty and indifference towards animals in this industry, I must admit that becoming a vegetarian or a vegan has crossed my mind...

But the possible exile to death of pets, and horses, who have been loyal companions of humans since the dawn of time, should make us all stop and consider how far this is going and how they should not be sent to their deaths, especially if they could be adopted or rehabilitated rather than killed. They are emotional beings, and my biggest fear is that cruel people will send pets who are in good condition and who love and trust their owners, to this zoo to become feed, simply because they have a desire to kill something and to cause something pain, when those animals could have lived out happy lives with new people who would love and respect them. 

This is not fun and games. This is about how much humans care for our smaller companions who do not think exactly like us or live as long as us. Will we honor their deaths as much as we do their lives? We must act now to ensure that no cherished or unwanted pet or horse, sick or not, gets torn to pieces without dignity.