Berlin Zoo should kill abandoned polar bear cub, says animal rights activist
[Update: This story is not accurate. See full update after the jump. --JS]
• Cub was ignored by mother, so zookeepers raised him themselves
• Activist: “Feeding by hand is … gross violation of animal protection laws”
• Bear’s story sparks controversy among politicians, animal activists
BERLIN, Germany (AP) — Berlin Zoo’s abandoned polar bear cub Knut looks cute, cuddly and has become a front-page media darling, but an animal rights activist insisted Monday he would have been better off dead than raised by humans.
“Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws,” animal rights activist Frank Albrecht was quoted as saying by the mass-circulation Bild daily, which has featured regular photo spreads tracking fuzzy Knut’s frolicking.
“The zoo must kill the bear.”
Go to original.
[Update] At 5:31 PM Mar. 25, 2006, Alan Hope wrote to newsroom-l:
The guy quoted in that story has come out to say that the German paper made it all up. He never called for Knut to be put to sleep at all. I read the rebuttal in the Dutch press, which won’t be much use to you. His comments to I think Bild magazine referred to another baby bear case in Leipzig which German readers will have followed but other readers not. So that connection was simply dropped in translation.
In short, the baby bear in Leipzig was put down and there was no follow-up to a legal challenge by animal rights people. So now, the guy quoted (his name is Frank Albrecht) says, it’s only logical that the baby bear Knut should be put to sleep.
From that, not wanting to bore their readers with details, the English-language papers snip out: “baby bear Knut should be put to sleep”.
Just looked for a reference via Google News, and not surprised to find the claim is widely reported, and the denial not at all. I guess the story would be ruined if the activist’s comment hadn’t been made, so the denial has simply been airbrushed out of the official history.
