I recently wrote about how heartwarming it was to hear that Amsterdam is going to install little staircases along its vast network of world-famous canals to help prevent cats from drowning. Now, we’ve gotten word that a zoo in nearby Denmark is accepting donations of unwanted pets to help feed captive predators.
Yes, you read that right. In northern Denmark, Aalborg Zoo has found a way to reduce waste and spark a range of ethical questions, all at the same time: by accepting donations of unwanted pets, including horses, to feed their captive predators. And you might get a tax deduction out of it.
As the zoo explained on social media, “In zoos, we have a responsibility to imitate the natural food chain of the animals—in terms of both animal welfare and professional integrity.”
Yes, This Denmark Zoo Will Feed Your Pet to a Lion
In other words, their lions, wolves, and other predators need whole prey to chow down on, not shrink-wrapped meat from a supplier. The zoo wants its animals to behave like wild predators, not spoiled housecats with a penchant for a fancy feast. It all sounds like the animal version of the manosphere obsession with eating like a caveman.
This means that any rabbits, guinea pigs, and chickens you’ve got lying around taking up space could be put to better use as food for zoo animals who want to feel alive as they hunt prey. Or some facsimile of hunting, though none of the prey will be hunted, as the animals donated will be “gently euthanized” before being fed to the animals.
The zoo accepts small animals as well as larger ones like horses—provided they have no recent illnesses, no medications in their system for at least a month, and are fit for transport. If they pass inspection, they become lunch for a lion and a tax write-off for the former owner.
Aalborg Zoo stresses that they’re not doing this for shock value. They genuinely care about animal welfare and ecological integrity; it just happens to sound shocking since it’s so out of the norm of how zoos usually function.
The program, they say, is all about ensuring that predators get the kind of nutrition and mental stimulation a slab of ground beef just doesn’t provide. It’s also an inviting opportunity for people to do something debatably noble.
