Danish zookeepers kill healthy baby giraffe with a bolt gun because he was 'surplus to requirements' - then feed him to the LIONS

Marius was shot with a bolt gun at Copenhagen Zoo

Spokesman said they were unable to find Marius a home at another zoo

Thousands had signed petitions appealing for a change of heart

Yorkshire Wildlife Park reportedly put in a last-ditch offer to take Marius in

This is the horrific moment schoolchildren crowded around to watch as the body of a perfectly healthy giraffe was chopped up before being fed to lions.

Despite more than 20,000 people signing an online petition to save two-year-old Marius, staff at Copenhagen Zoo yesterday went ahead and shot the animal with a bolt pistol.

Young children stood at arm’s length as his carcass was skinned and dissected before the meat was thrown to the lions.

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Perfectly healthy: Another Danish zoo may put down one of its giraffes just days after Marius (above) was shot dead and autopsied in the presence of visitors at Copenhagen Zoo Copenhagen Zoo's giraffe Marius who was put down by the zoo authorities in a controversial action that has drawn widespread condemnation

The Danish zoo said the drastic move was needed to combat inbreeding and insisted the display was educational.

But animal rights campaigners last night condemned the killing of Marius, saying it exposed the cruel reality of welfare even in Europe’s top zoos.

Marius’s plight had triggered worldwide outpourings of protest, including an offer to rehome him in Britain, with many saying they were sickened by a zoo killing a healthy animal.

Copenhagen Zoo said it was told by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) that Marius was genetically too similar to the other giraffes in its breeding programme. Because captive animals are bred from a limited gene pool, zoos are monitored to prevent inbreeding and ensure the health of future generations.

After announcing plans to have Marius put down, the zoo received offers of a new home – including one from Yorkshire Wildlife Park – as well as a private buyer who offered 500,000 euros (£410,000).

A lion feasts on the remains of Marius at Copenhagen Zoo after the mammal was put down earlier in the day A crown gathers for the public autopsy on Marius's body Captivated: Children watch as the body of the giraffe is butchered in front of them

But bosses said the rules of EAZA membership meant animals could not be transferred to institutions that did not follow its rules on breeding programmes.

The zoo’s scientific director, Bengt Holst, said it was the same as parks culling deer to keep the whole population healthy.

He said: ‘Giraffes today breed very well, and when they do you have to choose and make sure the ones you keep are the ones with the best genes. The most important factor must be that the animals are healthy physically and behaviourally and that they have a good life while they are living, whether this life is long or short.’

Mr Holst said the zoo didn’t give its eight giraffes contraceptives due to ‘unwanted side effects on the internal organs’ and in order to allow animals to display natural parenting behaviour. According to Danish media, Copenhagen Zoo destroys 20-30 animals a year, including bears, tigers and zebras.

Mr Holst told the BBC spaces at institutions such as Yorkshire Wildlife Park should be reserved for ‘genetically more important’ giraffes and that the campaign to save Marius had gone ‘much too far’.

Marius (centre) was shot with a bolt gun and will be chopped up for the other animals' dinner

An 18-month-old giraffe named Marius was put down on this morning at Copenhagen Zoo

The animal was deemed 'surplus' before it was put down by zookeepers in Copenhagen

Animal rights campaigners in Denmark tried to save the healthy young giraffe at Copenhagen Zoo from being destroyed

The zoo is part of a European breeding programme for giraffes and is bound by rules over inbreeding to keep animals healthy

To supporters’ horror, the zoo yesterday announced Marius had been killed with a bolt gun instead of a lethal injection, which would have contaminated the flesh.

His carcass was then skinned and chopped up while visitors crowded around and the meat was fed to the lion population.

A spokesman said parents were allowed to decide whether their children should watch what the zoo regarded as an important display of scientific knowledge about animals, adding that it would have been ‘foolish’ to let the meat go to waste. Doncaster-based Yorkshire Wildlife Park, whose Danish head of ‘hoofstock’ offered to rehome Marius, said it was ‘saddened’ by the news.

‘We have 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 studbook keeper,’ it said.

However the park said it received no response by the time it learnt that Marius had been destroyed.

Stine Jensen, of Denmark’s Organisation Against the Suffering of Animals, said the killing showed Copenhagen Zoo was not ‘the ethical institution that it wants to portray itself as being’.