As worldwide outrage continues over the killing of a healthy giraffe in Denmark on Sunday, Jack Hanna has raised more than $100,000 to bring a second Danish giraffe threatened with slaughter to Ohio. Hanna, emeritus director of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, said yesterday that it took him just three phone calls to raise the money after he heard on Wednesday that the Jyllands Park zoo in Denmark might kill a healthy giraffe in its care.

As worldwide outrage continues over the killing of a healthy giraffe in Denmark on Sunday, Jack Hanna has raised more than $100,000 to bring a second Danish giraffe threatened with slaughter to Ohio.

Hanna, emeritus director of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, said yesterday that it took him just three phone calls to raise the money after he heard on Wednesday that the Jyllands Park zoo in Denmark might kill a healthy giraffe in its care.

He said the Wilds animal preserve in Muskingum County, which the Columbus Zoo oversees, has 9,000 acres and plenty of room to house more than the six giraffes it has now.

�No matter what kind of living creatures you have in a zoo, there�s a responsibility for zookeepers to take care of them throughout their lifetime,� Hanna said. �If we don�t do that, we shouldn�t have zoos.�

On Sunday, the Copenhagen Zoo killed a 2-year-old giraffe that had been born there. Veterinarians shot the giraffe in the head with a bolt pistol � the type used in slaughterhouses � then cut it up in front of visitors and fed parts of it to lions.

Zoo officials said the giraffe�s genes were not needed; they turned down opportunities to move the giraffe elsewhere and said allowing visitors to watch it being cut up was educational.

Hanna�s passionate speeches and interviews about the giraffe�s death apparently convinced the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a worldwide organization with more than 6,000 members, to rethink a bland statement it released on Monday that neither condemned nor supported the Copenhagen Zoo�s actions.

In a statement yesterday, the association said its accredited zoos exchange animals and manage breeding so animals are not born that can�t be cared for throughout their lifetimes. Unneeded animals are not killed, the statement said.

The Jyllands Park zoo said on its Facebook page yesterday that it might have to euthanize one of its two male giraffes if it obtains a �genetically more valuable� animal and can�t find a new home for the unneeded giraffe.

The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, which supported the Copenhagen Zoo�s actions, said it would not support killing one of the Jyllands Park giraffes.

Columbus Zoo director Tom Stalf said yesterday that what happened in Copenhagen should never happen again.

�There are so many other options,� he said.

The Columbus Zoo, for example, has 11 giraffes: eight castrated males, one male for breeding and two females. Plans already are in place to house any offspring produced by breeding.

�When you plan, you can ensure that you�re giving the animals in your care great care and long lives,� Stalf said.

�I�m encouraging the zoos in Denmark to manage their population and know where the offspring is going to go before putting a male and a female together.�

In the meantime, Hanna said, plans for a Siberian tiger from the Copenhagen Zoo to come to the Columbus Zoo for breeding have been put on hold.

�I want no involvement with anyone (from that zoo) if this kind of killing is practiced,� he said.

He said he has not yet talked to Jyllands Park officials about how much it might cost to buy the giraffe, but he plans to set up a fund to save any giraffes threatened with slaughter at zoos.

�I�m going to put in a nice amount to start the whole thing,� he said.

For now, he said, people can donate to the Columbus Zoo and indicate what their donations are for.

�We have a responsibility to these animals to breed them and watch their gene pool, but we don�t have the right to shoot the animal and say that�s educational,� he said.

�It�s a sad thing to think that human beings betrayed that beautiful giraffe. As long as I�m alive, I�ll do everything I can to stop it.�

kgray@dispatch.com

@reporterkathy