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Danish zoo criticized as it dissects lion before crowd

 
Children try to ward off the smell during a public dissection of a dead male lion Thursday at the Odense Zoo in Denmark.
Children try to ward off the smell during a public dissection of a dead male lion Thursday at the Odense Zoo in Denmark.
Published Oct. 16, 2015

ODENSE, Denmark — Some children held their noses and grimaced in disgust. Others got curious and came up close to watch Danish zoo officials carve up a lion carcass and display its blood-red organs in a public dissection Thursday that stirred outrage outside Denmark but little within.

Officials at Odense Zoo in central Denmark said the gory performance was educational, teaching children about the anatomy of a lion. Wearing headsets, they butchered the carcass of the year-old feline with blood-soaked gloves, slicing off its head and pulling out the intestines, heart and liver.

Adult spectators brought scarfs to their noses to ward off the pungent smell. Curious children watched in awe, some pinching their noses. The event was deliberately scheduled to take place during the annual fall school holidays.

"For all the kids living in towns, it's wonderful for them to see and it's only natural," said Gitte Johanson, 28, a visitor who grew up on a farm.

Some animal-rights activists sharply criticized Odense Zoo, 105 miles west of Copenhagen, for killing the lion along with two siblings in February to avoid inbreeding as is custom among many zoos in Europe.

Joanna Swabe, head of the Brussels-based Humane Society International/Europe, said in a statement that "zoos routinely over-breed and kill lions and thousands of other animals deemed surplus to requirements."

U.S. zoos try to avoid killing animals by using contraceptives to make sure they don't have more offspring than they can house. That method has been criticized by some for disrupting animals' natural behavior.

In February 2014, the Copenhagen Zoo faced international protests after a giraffe was killed, dissected and fed to lions in front of children.