Danish zoo to dissect culled lion in public education move

The zoo says the lion was "surplus" to the space in the zoo and visitors find the event interesting

Lion cubs were euthanised at Copenhagen Zoo in 2014 (Kym & Tonya Illman)

Children and parents will gather to watch the dissection of a lion at a Danish zoo, despite an outcry over a similar procedure with a giraffe at a different zoo last year.

The Odense zoo in central Denmark has culled a male lion and kept it in a freezer for nine months because of a "surplus" of lions at the site - and will be holding a public dissection to educate onlookers, according to The Guardian.

A wave of controversy broke over Copenhagen Zoo when it killed healthy two-year old giraffe Marius for reasons involving their breeding programme, saying his genes were "already well-represented" in other zoos.

At that zoo, staff received death threats after Marius was fed to a family of lions - and there was an outcry later when a family of four lions, including two young cubs, was culled.

People look on as a veterinarian prepares to dismember a giraffe named Marius after it was killed at Copenhagen Zoo

The cubs were culled because they would "have been too young to fend for themselves" without their parents, The Independent reported at the time.

Now, the Odense zoo is following suit. They have said the lion in question will be dissected next Thursday, and have explained they are firm about their decision.

"The reason we are dissecting it is we believe there is a lot of education in dissecting a lion," Michael Wahlberg Sorensen, a zookeeper at Odense zoo, told The Guardian.

He said visitors "find it interesting to see a lion so up close". The zoo has performed public dissection of lions already without negative reactions, he added.

The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, to which about 340 zoos belong, estimates that somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 tiny to large animals are "management-euthanised" a year, the BBC has reported.

Five years ago three German zookeepers were prosecuted for culling three tiger cubs "without reasonable cause" at Magdeburg Zoo. A zebra and Oryx have been killed in the UK up to 2014.