After being forced shut due to the coronavirus pandemic, a zoo in northern Germany is facing so much financial pressure it may end up feeding its animals to each other in a worst-case scenario.
According to reports, Neumünster zoo, in Schleswig-Holstein, has been closed since March 15. The zoo relies entirely on donations and entry fees to feed some 700 animals which include arctic foxes, maned wolves, seals and Germany’s biggest polar bear Vitus. It has not yet received any emergency aid promised by the federal government.
Zoo director Verena Kaspari told the media, “If — and this is really the worst, worst case — if I run out of money to buy food, or if it should happen that my food supplier can no longer deliver due to new restrictions, I would slaughter animals to feed the other animals.”
“We currently have funds that would bring us by around mid-May,” she added.
As part of Kaspari’s worst-case-scenario plan, goats and deer would be killed first and the polar bear Vitus — which stands nearly 12 feet tall — would be the last animal to go. She assured that none of the animals slaughtered would be an endangered species.
On March 31, the association representing 56 major zoos in Germany, including Neumünster, called on the government to release $100 million to save the industry.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Yvonne Würz, told DW that “population management” was “nothing new for zoos.”
“Zoos are funded through and live from tiny baby animals. When there is not enough space for the animals they are often killed for food [for other animals],” said Würz.
She explained that some zoos are transparent about the numbers of animals they kill each year. The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria estimates between 3,000 and 5,000 animals are killed in European zoos each year.
