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A German zoo has been told it should let a baby polar bear known as "cuddly
Knut'' die after it was rejected by its mother.
Knut and his twin brother were abandoned shortly after birth in December by
20-year-old Tosca, a former performing polar bear at an East German zoo.
The twin died in freezing conditions but Knut was saved and has since been
hand-reared by Berlin Zoo zookeeper Thomas Doerflein, who sleeps by his side,
bottle-feeds him and even plays Elvis Presley songs to him on a guitar,
according to German news reports.
Reuters says three-month-old Knut has become an unofficial Berlin city mascot
and has also starred in a climate change campaign by world-renowned photographer
Annie Leibovitz.
But the animal has sparked debate over whether it is right for a human to
nurture a polar bear.
Animal rights activist Frank Albrecht told Germany's Bild newspaper:
``Hand-rearing a polar bear is not appropriate and is a serious violation of
animal rights.
"In fact, the cub should have been killed,'' he said.
His view was backed up by the head of another zoo who has watched two
hand-reared animals struggle to cope after being inevitably separated from their
human carers.
"One should have had the courage to let the bear die then [when Knut's twin
died],'' Aachen Zoo boss, Wolfram Graf-Rudolf, reportedly told a German
newspaper.
"Each time his keeper leaves him, and he can't follow, he will die a
little.''
The BBC said it was not unusual for animals to be put down after
being abandoned by their mothers.
Last December a baby sloth was put down at Leipzig zoo after it was rejected
by its mother, it said.
However Berlin Zoo has rejected calls for Knut's killing and says he is
strong enough to shortly go on public display.
"We are keeping Knut,'' Berlin Zoo's vet, Andre Schuele, told the BBC.
"He's staying alive. Knut was a healthy baby bear when we found him and so
there was no reason for us to put him down ... And there's certainly no reason
to do so now.''
He said Knut was being left alone for a couple of hours each day and was
slowly being weaned off the bottle to help him gain his independence.
He will eventually be introduced to other polar bears at a different zoo, the
vet said.
Killing this cub would violate the International Treaty For Cruelty To Cute Things. The same treaty that protects labradors from being heckled and keeps Drew Barrymore out of jail (until she turns 40).
Hand-rearing a polar bear is not appropriate and is a serious violation of
animal rights.
I can't believe someone actually said that.... rubbish
Maybe they should just euthanise loonies instead?
hahahahaah That's a great ad!
That magazine cover reminds me of an old joke, where this little Mafiosa child asks his parents for a bicycle for Christmas and they tell him to go to his room and pray to the Virgin Mary for one, so he goes upstairs and kneels down in front of the statue of the Madonna and says "Holy Mary gimme a bike". Then he changes his mind and says "Dearest Mother Mary can I please have a bike for Christmas?". He decides that's not good enough either, but he hits on a plan, and he takes the statue off the bedside dresser and places it in a drawer and says "Holy Jesus, if you ever want to see your mother again...".
Wrong topic I know, but heck.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
That's a good one!
Dek likes
Hand-rearing a polar bear is not appropriate and is a serious violation of
animal rights.
i was watching this documentary on hand raising sun bears. one thing's for sure. Bears are naturally feral and as they get older even if u had hand raised the cub, it will turn on you because of its own natural instincts. (as did the bear in the docu) however i fail to see how hand raising a bear is a violation. as long as they know how to wean the cubs to get them independant, it's all good. i would expect to leave it to the experts in the zoo and not listen to the gibberish from some loony good for nothing activist who somehow got himself quoted on BBC.
Hand-rearing a polar bear is not appropriate and is a serious violation of
animal rights.
As if killing the poor beast or letiing it starve to death is not? Where do these looney-bins come from?
Maybe they should shave the polar bear and leave it outside a maternity hospital?
haha
That's an idea! Angelina Jolie should adopt him as an orphan.
HAHAHAHAHA
Funny stuff guys!
Somebody call Brigitte Bardot plz!!!
As much as I try, she just never gives me her number.
On Wall Street, if a stock as been hammered in the market after missing an earnings forecast, traders say it was "clubbed to death" with the inference to Brigitte's lil pal.
I'm afraid it's too late:
She does'nt have the same "media power" than before...
ha brigitte...
@Erik > ha ha
I like the 'before' picture better. Too bad I was 4 when it was done....
there is so many playwords to do about her in french... (just to give you a hint, the translation for seal in french is "phoque", which sounds exactly like the english f*** word)
j'ai oblier le mot pour 'seal' a francais. 
hé hé
lol
That's an idea! Angelina Jolie should adopt him as an orphan.
LOL
I'd adopt him. He'll go well with my Bundy's.
Hey! A day trip to the beach with my new adoptee! Cool!
Don't upset a Queenslander - oh yeah - and bears too.
SSCCCAAARRYYY!
too ... much ... cuteness ... *brain implodes*
such a cuddly cutie pie!!!!!!
The song killed it for me....
The little fella is really cute tho! All babies are!
They should let the person who made that comment kill it
Who wanna bet that the next Pixar/Disney christmas production will feature a polar bear?
Oh yeah!! They haven't done a polar bear have they?
there is "Open Season " but it's a "regular" bear
It will be called "Happy Paws". Or not....
Or 'Kill this bear'...
He is very cute. Now. Ive heard that polar bears can track you for days if they get your scent. Hmmm, scary.
Yeah. I don't know if I find them cute - baby or otherwise.
Oh come on Kasta, watch that video. Adorable.
For about 9 more months........
HOw could anyone think of killing someone so cute!!!! Way too cute he is!!! I wanna be a zoo keeper!!
Anways considering that Polar Bears numbers are dwindling, how can any activitist think of anything else but saving polar bears??!! must some sort of fundamentalist again!!
I want to take him grocery shopping in my SUV-sized pram. Then I can clog the aisles at woolies for a change.
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA
Now that's an idea!
erik the aisle will clear itself for you when they see the polar bear and the SUV pram. easy peasy.
Just add one cute polar bear cub!
Lookin good and formidable. Right of way for you for sure.
What's the mileage like on that?
Terrible fuel economy I bet!
I can see those being sold in the US.
There are Jeep ones already being sold, over here as well as the States. Not too sure about the Hummer ones, but I've noticed they've widened the aisles at Woolies Hornsby, so I could be the first.....
I'll look out for you on the front page of the local paper!
HE may look cute and cuddly but Knut, the celebrity polar bear cub, stands
accused of conspiracy to murder.
As thousands of well-wishers flocked to
Berlin Zoo to coo and sigh over his antics, few were aware of the tragedy that
unfolded only a cage or two away.
Yan Yan, the zoo's most popular resident until Knut's arrival, died suddenly
at the age of 22.
The cause of death has yet to be determined, but already fingers are being
pointed at three-month-old Knut.
The mass circulation Bild newspaper does not favour coincidences.
"Panda Yan Yan dies in Berlin Zoo", said its front-page headline. "Because of
Knut?"
Up to 30,000 people a day have been queuing for a glimpse of the cub, who has
been bottle-fed by keepers since his mother, a surly ex-East German circus
animal, rejected him.
As many visitors were unable to see Knut through the crowds, they moved on to
pay their respects to Yan Yan. Flash-bulbs popped from dawn to dusk.
That, says Bild, may have been too much for Yan Yan to bear.
"She seemed restless and intimidated," the newspaper said.
The
verdict: fatal stress induced by Knut, or at least by his fans.
Yan Yan was even more of a rarity than Knut. There are only 1600 pandas
living in the wild.
Pressure was piled on Yan Yan from the beginning to
conceive as quickly as possible.
Her partner, Bao Bao, tried his best, once every six months or so, but they
both lost interest after Yan Yan miscarried in 1997.
Chinese experts were flown in to inject some hormones but at €15,000
($25,000) a session, the zoo gave up.
Yan Yan's heart was, in any case,
no longer in it. Her celebrity faded.
Knut's star, however, continues to rise. He is still being staked out by
paparazzi and film crews and charmed fans yesterday by chewing his keeper's
boots.
The zoo sold 2400 Knut cuddly toys at the weekend and is rushing thousands
more into production to restock its souvenir shop and meet orders from Austria
and the US.
Haribo, a German confectioner, plans to add a Knut-shaped design to its range
of jelly bear sweets.
"We are reacting to a strong demand from parents and children," Haribo
spokesman Marco Alfter said.
A German version of the internet auction site eBay had more than 200 Knut
items for sale yesterday.
The zoo copyrighted Knut's name and is planning a range of products,
promising profits will go to animal conservation.
The marketing team, however, sees one problem with the appeal of its cuddly
new star - he is growing fast. Knut weighs 9kg but a fully grown polar bear can
top the scales at 600kg.
was this an actual news article? why do i feel that the writing style has comical undertones to it? intentional or unintentional, i can't really fathom...
Moral of both stories - dun send endangered bears to German zoos.
So, an update on the 'story' of the 'evil', 'crazy' animal activist
It was bad reporting and a story blown out of proportion
Saw this on MediaWatch just now. Will get links as soon as they put it up
Ok, the story is up
I heard Virginia (ABC RADIO) received a rap across the knuckles for taking the guy's quotes out of context.
It is comical hey Swinger?
Trust Haribo to use it as a marketing opportunity. Ha ha.
you may want to edit that
Just saw on Today that Steiff, the German stuffed animal maker, is coming out with a Knut toy bear. Looked nice. Steiff makes good collectable animals, so I may have to add that one to my collection.
HAHAHAH oops.... bad typo to make....
Thanks Super King
---------- Zoo gets polar bear cub death threat ------------
BERLIN - The Berlin Zoo has received a death threat against
the international celebrity polar bear cub named Knut,
whose mother abandoned him at birth. The Sun of London
reported Thursday that the zoo received a fax on Wednesday
that said: "Knut dead. Thursday noon." Police were called
immediately and the little bear's enclosure was thoroughly
searched. While zoo staff was more vigilant Wednesday and
Thursday morning, police spokesman Michael Maass denied
Knut was under police guard. However, extra police were
sent to the zoo in the afternoon as German President Horst
Koehler opened a new exhibit, the report said. As many as
15,000 people line up to see Knut in two viewings each
day. The bear has appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair,
and has his own blog and a television show documenting his
mother's rejection and hand rearing by zookeepers.
He he.
Nice full stop Dek.
Full stop? What full stop?
You Knut.
I thought it was a humorous passing shot...
hahahahaha
Good point.....
Actually, my sister calls me that all the time!
An update to Knut's situation - looks like he's a bit of a troubled teen
I always thought that zoo life would get to the cub, especially with so many people per day viewing
Yeah, just that would be enough to make someone raving mad...
But look, it sounds like it's only doing what is in its nature. Should it have been put down for that? I'm not so sure...
