[Applause]
this is European stud book number four
four three four five or better known as
Marius the giraffe Marius was a
two-year-old male reticulated giraffe
who was deemed surplus to the needs of
the international stud as a consequence
he was euthanized
he was dissected to obtain scientific
samples and to educate zoo visitors and
ultimately he was fed to a prey a pride
of lions and I was one who shot him I
was one standing outside the giraffe
house with a light rifle in the heavy
heart as Marius came out on a cold
February day I looked at him came out
starting to sniff the cold air started
to eat a bit he didn't know what was
coming
thankfully he had no idea but I did
still looking at this amazing animal one
of the most fascinating creatures on the
planet still I lifted the rifle pulled
the trigger and Marius was dead before
anybody heard the sound of the gun I
took no pleasure in shooting a healthy
giraffe but I understood the difference
between survival of an individual and
survival of a species and I understood
that if Marius had been castrated and
maintained in the breeding program he
would have taken up space that would
have prevented a valuable female from
producing valuable offspring to sustain
the species life and death is part of my
work I was there when Marius was born
and I was there when he died and I'm
here to tell you why under similar
circumstances I would do the same thing
again I'm a zoo veterinarian I've
dedicated my career to working with
exotic and often it's endangered animals
together with colleagues and zoos around
the world I worked to preserve species
and to educate people
about animals about biodiversity about
life really but also how death is part
of life when I graduated from vet school
I like all of my new colleagues I think
I wanted to save every species every
patient every animal and I guess I still
do somehow but but 20 years of working
with conservation of animals has taught
me to look at the bigger picture and the
bigger picture is of saving species and
in that bigger picture the individual is
less important than the population as a
veterinarian I'm licensed to kill that
means that I have the right and
sometimes the duty to kill animals if an
animal is horribly sick it's a privilege
to be able to end their life if it's
young and healthy as Marius was it's a
tough task
some argue that it's wrong to kill
animals altogether to play God as they
say yet as soon as any human being
resumes responsibility for any animal
we've already taken on that very role we
decide when the dog gets to go for a
walk we decide when the cat gets fed
with a flick of a switch we decide when
the day begins in the horse barn or the
goldfish bowl in the terrarium we decide
when the sunshine and when it rains in
the zoo we decide which animals get to
breed and which do not if an animal is
sick we might decide to treat it to
prolong its life and ultimately we
oftentimes decide when an animal dies we
do all that because we care we care for
the animals and we care for sustaining
animal life on this planet if you care
so much why'd you kill Marius you might
ask and to answer that we need to take
another step back step backwards and ask
why do we have suze and the zoos have a
role to play in the 21st century and the
answer is unequivocally yes in a world
where thousands of animal species are
threatened by extinction
zoos are more important than they ever
were in the old days
zoos were part of the problem
unsustainably bringing animals in from
the wild to exhibit in small cages
sometimes even to ridicule today good
zoos are part of the solution as
conservation centers responsible zoos
revolve around protecting animals and
their habitats
today responsible zoos are about animal
welfare and conservation conservation is
achieved through a four prong approach
firstly responsible zoos protect
wildlife in the wild by participating in
mg poaching activities by planting
corridors to connect fragmented
populations or habitats and by helping
policy makers make the right decisions
ensues educate people living alongside
the animals to make them respect and
care for their animals whether it be in
the Indonesian jungle or the Danish
countryside secondly responsible zoos
protect wildlife by captive breeding of
endangered species as a Noah's Ark or
let's be realistic and Noah's life boat
if zoos come together to safeguard a
certain species and strict care is taken
to responsibly managing the genetic pool
then that species can be kept safe even
if it were lost in the wild several
species either almost or completely
extinct in the wild have been
re-established based on zoo populations
good examples include the golden lion
tamarin here and the Arabian oryx and
closer to home several Danish amphibian
species have been reinforced through
captive breeding and reintroduction of
thousands of toads into restored ponds
and wetlands thirdly responsible zoos
enable conservation through research
scientific insights obtained in zoos can
then be used to protect animals in the
wild
but probably the most important thing
the most important way that zoos can
promote conservation is through
education education and fascination in
modern societies further and further
away from the wild away from agriculture
fishing and farming and hunting zoos
offer humans a glimpse of the natural
world a chance to reconnect with animals
an opportunity to see for yourself the
size of the elephant smell the penguin
or hear the roar of the lion a moment to
realize that we people are only a small
piece in that huge and complicated
puzzle we call life and once that
connection is made once a person has
been touched by animals zoos have an
amazingly powerful platform to educate
their visitors about biodiversity about
illegal pet trade responsible logging
sustainable fisheries recycling plastic
in the oceans responsible zoos can
educate people to make better choices
but in order to fascinate and educate
and to be that Noah's lifeboat zoos need
animals for the species at or that still
thrive in the wild it would be
short-sighted and ethically wrong to
continue to bring them into captivity
and for the animals already extinct in
the wild
obviously that's no longer an option Suz
must have sustainable animal populations
and zoos must ensure through continued
breeding that in 50 or 100 years
the populations that we have in our care
are still as robust as healthy and
that's genetically varied as they are
today and to achieve that goal one has
to prioritize the population over the
individual to see the bigger picture so
to speak so we need to choose survival
of the reticulated giraffe as a species
over Mariusz the individual if
populations are to remain stable we need
a constant turnover
why not just use contraception you might
ask to keep that overproduction down
well as it turns out we can fairly
easily turn off reproduction through
contraceptives or through simple
separation of males and females but
turning it back on is very complicated
and sometimes impossible so in other
words if zoos stop breeding a certain
species because they're worried about
what to do with an surplus of offspring
the result may well be that in a few
years that population will crash due to
insufficient births in other words it's
more responsible to produce a certain
surplus of animals some of which will
have to be euthanized then not to breed
because the only alternative to a
surplus is a deficit and when we're
talking endangered animals a deficit
translates into extinction
as you can hear stewarding these animal
populations is an immense responsibility
and it's one that comes with difficult
decisions and dilemmas and the
responsible and scientifically sound
decisions are not necessary the most
popular ones when Mary's the giraffe was
shot a lot of people now understandably
spoke up based on their gut reaction
that this beautiful and healthy animal
was fed to the Lions rather than be
allowed to establish a breeding group of
his own what they fail to realize was
that even if he lived for only two years
Mary is still contribute to the
sustainability of the species as I just
talked about but also contributed to the
welfare of his mother and his other herd
mates it boils down to quality of life
versus quantity of life and I choose
quality in the safe environment of a zoo
where animals don't have to spend much
time finding food and spend no time
escaping their enemies what are they to
do with their days and what are we to do
to make sure that we fill up their lives
to give them something useful to do what
are they to do with their lives
what we can do is we can allow them to
breed and elements contracept it or
simply separate it from a potential maid
is deprived from one of the fundamental
aspects of animal life the behavior of
reproduction one of the most fundamental
instincts of all living creatures is to
breed to pass on your genes to the next
generation through evolution every
individual every species that did not
master this a long ago extinct and all
other biological functions sleeping
drinking eating and keeping safe are
merely necessary functions to obtain the
goal of passing on your genes if you
take a look at this picture of this line
he's fat as a pig and you could argue
that he's got human company but there's
something missing in this picture and
that's the opportunity to breed and I
would wager that I would rather be this
lion in my zoo surrounded by a couple of
lionesses and multiple offspring in a
natural group setting allowing zoo
animals to breed provides them with
countless hours of meaningful content in
their lives from port ship over mating
in this building fighting off
competitive competitors pregnancy
brooding taking care of the young and
eventually kicking out the juveniles or
sub adults kicking them out of the
family group or out of the hood it all
provides purpose in life and this
applies whether you're a lion or a
flamingo or a polar bear or even a
giraffe and this is Marius when he was
born and I think from this image you can
almost see how much this means to
marries his mother you can almost tell
that she is provided with meaningful
content in her life for two to three
years and at that stage is being a young
male the herd bull will evict him from
the family start chasing him off and in
the zoo it becomes our responsibility to
make sure that he is removed
either by finding him ideally finding
him a new home or if for the reasons I
already mentioned that's not possible
- providing a quick and painless death
Marius was born to ensure the welfare of
his herd and the future of his species
he was shot because it was the
responsible thing to do responsible zoos
make responsible decisions responsible
decisions conserve nature and save
species thank you
[Applause]