ext_64212 ([identity profile] urbpan.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] urbpan 2007-09-03 06:34 pm (UTC)

Zoo animals aren't fed the remains of their fallen brothers in the collection for a few reasons:

1. Dead zoo animals are necropsied under non-sterile conditions, (meaning that you are left with a dismembered carcass that could harbor disease) and there is nothing like a butcher's freezer to store a rack of zebra, say.

2. Zoo diets are pretty strictly codified in husbandry manuals, and deviating from them is frowned upon.

3. Zoos that have experimented with feeding off one part of the collection to another have found themselves facing negative publicity. This, I suspect, is the main reason--zoo guests become attached to individual animals, and if word got out that Fluffy was consumed by Leo, revenue-affecting publicity would result.

Plus, as you can see from discussions above, sentiment trumps logic, always.

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