Lion cubs at Cologne Zoo: Bred and killed
At the beginning of last week, two cubs — one male and one female — were born to the Asiatic lions at Cologne Zoo. However, they had to be euthanised, as the mother “Gina” had not properly accepted or cared for the young animals even after several days.
“Gina” repeatedly tried to return to her older cubs, who at 1.5 years of age are also not yet independent and still require several more months of maternal care.
Her offspring born in 2024 had not yet become independent of their mother when lioness Gina was made to give birth again — only for the newborns to be killed shortly afterwards, writes PETA.
“Gina” acted, from her perspective, in an entirely rational manner by choosing to continue raising her nearly mature offspring from the previous year until they reach full independence in the near future.
It is evolutionarily determined that a lioness will only care for the cubs with the greatest chances of survival — in this case, the older cubs who are not yet independent.
Such cruel occurrences are not isolated incidents, but rather a sad everyday reality behind the walls of zoos. Breeding policy is irresponsible and must come to an end. Cologne Zoo knew that the animals had virtually no chance.
After one week, the cubs had become so severely weakened without their mother’s milk and care that they were killed “to spare them unnecessary suffering.” Hand-rearing was ruled out, as this would lead to the lions becoming incorrectly imprinted on humans.
Studies show that Asiatic lions in the European Breeding Programme are severely affected by inbreeding and make no contribution to genuine species conservation.
Further articles
- Zoos cause more harm to animals than you may realise
- Justice for zoo animals
- Is it time to ban zoos?
- Finland: Zoo wants to send giant pandas back to China due to maintenance costs
- The keeping of elephants in zoos must finally come to an end!
- Killing of surplus animals — zoos are failing at species conservation
