A German zoo may resort to feeding its animals to each other in a bid to stay afloat amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Neumünster Zoo has faced severe financial strain due to a lack of patrons, and has subsequently had to prepare for some devastating measures.
“We’ve listed the animals we’ll have to slaughter first,” the Zoo’s director Verena Kaspari allegedly told Die Welt newspaper, as quoted by the BBC.
According to the publication, Kaspari deemed this to be the very last resort, but did mention that animals such as seals and penguins would be the first to be euthanised, due to the large amount of fish they need each day.
“If it comes to it,” she said. “I’ll have to euthanise animals, rather than let them starve.”
“At the worst, we would have to feed some of the animals to others.”
Despite this, Kaspari reportedly noted that these “unpleasant” potential actions wouldn’t help the zoo’s financial losses, which she estimates to over $300k during their spring season.
The zoo has requested financial aid from the German government to avoid such measures.
