Remembering Marius, Giraffe Chopped Up by Danish Zoo Keepers as Kids Watched

This week the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing four species of giraffes under the Endangered Species Act. Giraffes live in Africa of course, but under the ESA it would be illegal to import any part of a giraffe into the US; the protections would also boost conservation funding for animals in the wild.

The Center for Biological Diversity, along with the Humane Society (of the US and internationally), first petitioned the US to protect giraffes in April 2017. It took a lawsuit in 2021 for the FWS to commit to a deadline to consider the petition. Now there will be a 90-day public comment period, followed by a final ruling.

“It’s about time that these magnificent animals are close to finally getting the protections they deserve,” says Nicholas Arrivo, managing attorney for Humane Society International and the Humane Society of the US. “They are rapidly disappearing from our planet with nearly 40% gone in just three decades due to habitat loss, poaching and other threats.”

Arrivo points out that the US is a major importer and exporter of giraffe parts – heads, legs, tails, and skins. “Today makes us hopeful that the outsized contribution by the US to this demand will be reduced.”

The USFWS identifies three subspecies of Northern giraffes as endangered, with two other varieties – reticulated and Masai giraffes – to be designated as threatened. Two more subspecies, the Angolan and South African giraffe, are not considered threatened but would enjoy the same protections because they are so similar to the endangered species that law enforcement can’t tell them apart.

We can’t talk about protecting giraffes without mentioning one country’s (Denmark) utter malfeasance in this area. In 2014 the Copenhagen Zoo euthanized – with a shotgun! – a young, healthy male giraffe named Marius. Bengt Holst, the zoo's scientific director, said they put Marius down to prevent inbreeding to protect the genetic health of all giraffes in European zoos. They dismembered Marius’s corpse in front of a zoo audience (including children), then punctuated the atrocity by feeding his remains to the lions.

We can do better.

Photo credit: Michael Brown / Giraffe Conservation Foundation