Taking Sides

As I mentioned in my last post, euthanasia (or "zoothanasia" as some call it) is a population management strategy used by many of the world's zoos. 

A mother cheetah with cubs in the wild.

Photo by Siddharth Maheshwari (CC-BY-SA-3.0) / Wikimedia

In short, animals are allowed to breed and raise their young as per nature, but then the offspring are killed when they hit puberty.

Hard to imagine here in the U.S., where we often rally around the individual at all costs. Zoos in Europe, however, argue that euthanasia is a kinder approach to raising wildlife in captivity while maintaining the genetic integrity of entire species. 

Learn more about both sides of the dilemma HERE.