The killing of baboons at the Nuremberg Zoo is still a heated debate. Meanwhile, a zoo in Denmark is seeking food through an unconventional approach: volunteers are being asked to donate their pets.

The organization Animal Rebellion plans to set up a protest camp at Nuremberg Zoo. Following the killing of twelve baboons at the zoo, the organizers want to use the camp to emphasize their demands: no more monkeys should be killed, and breeding must be stopped. Furthermore, zoos must stop imprisoning animals and exhibiting them.

Animal Rebellion further announced that the camp is scheduled to run until next Monday. It is planned to be set up in the Tiergarten parking lot, and the necessary permit has been granted, a spokeswoman said.

The previous week, the zoo had culled the animals due to lack of space. According to the zoo, the enclosure had long been overcrowded, and keeping them in accordance with animal welfare standards was no longer possible. It was not possible to dispose of the surplus animals, and contraceptive measures for the females had also not been successful in the past. The incident sparked a debate, with husbandry methods and the purpose of zoos in general being hotly debated, as were the methods of feeding.

Zoo is looking for chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs

An example from Denmark has now demonstrated that feeding animals to zoo animals can also be done without emotion. A zoo in Aalborg called for deceased and sometimes even living pets to be"donated" so that they could be fed to predators.

"If you have a healthy animal that needs to be relinquished for various reasons, you are welcome to donate it to us." The post continues: "Chickens, rabbits, and guinea pigs are an important part of the diet of our predators—especially the European lynx, which requires whole prey similar to those it would hunt in the wild," the zoo explains on its website.

They have a responsibility to mimic the animals' natural food chain –"for reasons of both animal welfare and professional integrity." The animals are then, it is further explained,"gently euthanized by trained personnel" and then used as food."This way, nothing is wasted – and we ensure the natural behavior, nutrition, and well-being of our predators." The offer was controversially discussed under the Facebook post. Some users saw it as a"good initiative," while others called it a "perverse idea."

137 rabbits were already given away in 2025

According to "Stern," even horses are being taken in at Aaloborg, the newspaper adds, adding that the animals in question are often old or injured. The zoo director revealed to a local television station that the offer has been met with considerable interest. In 2025, they had already received 137 rabbits."Many bring baby rabbits with them because they have had so many, and rabbits are so fertile that many babies are often born," the paper quotes the zoo's zoologist, Thea Loumand Faddersbøll, as saying.

However, another media report analyzed by"Stern" suggests another motive: According to the report, some pet owners are tired of their animals. Henrik Vester Skov Johansen, the zoo's director, is quoted as saying:"There are also many who lose interest in their pets, and then we can help people out of a dilemma."

The death of Giraffe Marius caused a stir in Copenhagen in 2014

On average, experts say an adult lion in a zoo consumes between four and seven kilograms of meat per day. According to the news agency dpa, many zoos therefore breed special feed animals intended as meals for lions, tigers, and other carnivores. But surplus zoo animals are also killed and fed to animals. The German Animal Welfare Association (DGB) calls this"common practice."

The killing of Marius the giraffe at Copenhagen Zoo made headlines in 2014. In 2023, Leipzig Zoo slaughtered a male zebra for which no other zoo could find space. Nuremberg Zoo, on the other hand, feeds endangered Somali wild asses and Prince Alfred deer to its animals.

The Nuremberg Zoo informs visitors on display boards about which animals were fed and when, zoo director Dag Encke told dpa. The recent outcry about the baboons, he says, is due to the fact that they are apes—and thus close relatives of humans:"It's a very emotional story." Acceptance is greater with hoofed animals.