Yorkshire wildlife park tried to save Marius the giraffe

Marius, a male giraffe, lies dead before being dissected, after he was put down at Copenhagen Zoo

Copenhagen Zoo defended the killing of the male giraffe Marius saying it was because of rules imposed by a European zoo association to deter inbreeding. After dissection it planned to feed its meat to carnivores in the zoo. Doncaster-based Yorkshire Wildlife Park (YWP) said they tried without success to contact the zoo and offer the giraffe a home.

A spokesman said: “When news of the plan was revealed on Saturday YWP immediately contacted Copenhagen Zoo via YWP’s head of hoofstock who is Danish and explained to the zoo why the Park urgently wished to speak to the zoo and requested a call to confirm the situation regarding the giraffe.

“YWP has a state of the art giraffe house built in 2012 with a bachelor herd of four male giraffes and the capacity to take an extra male, subject to the agreement of the European stud book keeper. One of the YWP giraffes is Palle, who came from Copenhagen Zoo in September 2012, when he was the same age as Marius.

“YWP did not hear back from the zoo, but on Saturday night YWP was contacted by the Danish press and the BBC and asked if they could confirm that they had made an offer to rehome Marius. YWP confirmed that they had contacted the zoo but had not heard back.”

Stenbaek Bro said Copenhagen Zoo was recommended to put down the giraffe by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria as there were already a lot of giraffes with similar genes in a breeding programme. He claimed most responsible zoos are members of the organisation.