Outcry in Germany as zoo kills 12 baboons

The Nuremberg Zoo in southern Germany killed 12 healthy Guinea baboons on Tuesday, according to an official statement.

Officials say they had no other option after they were unable to transfer animals to other zoos and contraception measures failed to slow the growth of the group.

The zoo, which was closed for "operational reasons" on Tuesday, initially announced the plan in February 2024, noting that its troop of baboons had grown to 40 but that facilities were originally designed to house only 25 of the primates.

Conflict between the animals had become more frequent in the area, resulting in injuries to individual baboons.

Zoo Director Dag Encke said expanding the space was not possible, nor was releasing the animals into the wild.

Rights groups decry 'irresponsible and unsustainable breeding policies'

Animal rights groups harshly criticized the move and threatened to sue the institution's management, saying the problem was one of their own making.

"What we feared would happen, has," said the group Pro Wildlife, "healthy animals had to be killed because the zoo maintained irresponsible and unsustainable breeding policies for decades."

"This culling was avoidable and illegal in our opinion," said the group.

Pro Wildlife is one of several groups that filed a criminal complaint against the zoo for violating animal protection laws.

"Animal welfare laws permits the killing of vertebrates only if there is a reasonable cause," said Christoph Maisack, who heads the German Legal Association for Animal Protection Law (DJGT), adding, "Letting them breed too freely cannot constitute such a reason."

Zoo Director Encke defended the decision, saying management had acted in accordance with criteria set out by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), which stipulates that culling the animals can be a "legitimate last resort to preserve the population."

Seven protesters arrested after scaling fences to enter zoo

The plan sparked regular protests with activists chaining and gluing themselves to the zoo entrance and baboon enclosures, and others scaling fences to gain entry on Tuesday.

Authorities say seven people who broke into the zoo on Tuesday were arrested. One of those was a woman who had glued herself to the ground inside the entrance.

Zoo management addressed the protests in a statement, saying, "We know that many will find this decision hard to understand, that it has annoyed, upset or infuriated them."

Culled animals regularly fed to lions, tigers

The German Animal Protection Association (Deutsche Tierschutzbund) released a statement claiming the zoo had broken a taboo, warning that other animals could follow.

"Responsibility for the well-being of animals that the zoo houses and breeds does not end when space gets tight or financing and organization become difficult," said the group in a statement.

Rights groups are now calling for politicians to more closely regulate zoos and their breeding policies.

The zoo's chief biologist, Jörg Beckmann, said neither pregnant females nor animals under scientific observation had been killed and added that the animals had been fed to predators after being shot.

Zoo Director Encke acknowledged that animals are regularly put down and fed to lions and tigers, with others bred expressly for that purpose.

He said the practice is not usually met with wide protest but suggested the situation with the baboons was perhaps different due to their being closely related to humans.