They are calling on politicians to prevent the killing of several healthy baboons at Nuremberg Zoo.
According to its own statements, the zoo plans to shoot the animals in their enclosure in order to make space and continue breeding.
The planned shooting of healthy baboons is a criminal act that must be prevented. Otherwise, our criminal complaint is already prepared, emphasises Laura Zodrow of Pro Wildlife. The baboons are being used here to set a dangerous precedent – it will not stop with this one species if this practice of killing unwanted zoo animals becomes established.
Decades of breeding without a concept leads to lack of space
Nuremberg Zoo has been breeding Guinea baboons for decades without a viable concept for dealing with offspring. The result: in an enclosure originally designed for 25 animals, more than 40 animals now live. The zoo now wants to shoot the surplus monkeys. Together, the Bund gegen Missbrauch der Tiere, the Deutscher Tierschutzbund, the Deutsche Juristische Gesellschaft für Tierschutzrecht, PETA Deutschland, Pro Wildlife and Vier Pfoten are appealing to the City Council’s Environmental Committee to prevent this.
James Brückner, Head of the Species Protection Department at the Deutscher Tierschutzbund, explains: “We call on the City of Nuremberg, as the operator of the zoo, to honour the constitutional goal of animal protection and to find a solution other than the killing of healthy animals.”Zoos have a responsibility to find alternative solutions – whether through transfer to other facilities, contraception or restructuring of husbandry. “The killing of healthy animals as a management method is a damning indictment of an institution that has committed itself to species conservation,” adds Torsten Schmidt of the Bund gegen den Missbrauch der Tiere.
Canned hunting in a monkey enclosure
Animal welfare advocates are particularly concerned by the zoo director's announcement that he intends to shoot the animals in the enclosure. “Baboons, as primates, are among our closest relatives in the animal kingdom. They are intelligent and highly social,” said biologist Dr. Yvonne Würz of PETA Germany. “It is barely imaginable what suffering it entails if they may have to witness their closest relatives being shot before their eyes.”
Announced criminal act must be prevented
The German Legal Society for Animal Protection Law (DJGT) has therefore called on the responsible veterinary authority to intervene. “The veterinary authority is obliged to issue an administrative order pursuant to § 16a para. 1 sentence 1 of the Animal Welfare Act, prohibiting the zoo director from carrying out the planned killing of the baboons at Nuremberg Zoo,” explained Dr. Barbara Felde of the DJGT.
