A zoo has sparked a conversation on social media after feeding one of its giraffes to its lions.
The Ostrava zoo in the Czech Republic took to Facebook last week to reveal that one of its giraffes - a beloved 19-year-old female Rothschild giraffe - had died after becoming ill.
In a September 27 post, the Daily Mail reports that zoo spokesperson Šárka Nováková revealed that the giraffe had to be euthanized by shooting after an illness led to her being "unable to stand" and "breathing with strain".
After undergoing tests, examinations showed that the giraffe had "a threaded pulse, clouded echoes of the heart, cyanotic mucous membranes and a distinctive lung edema".
Clinically, everything pointed to heart failure," the post added, before explaining that "due to the overall condition, hypoxia, age and stress of the animal, euthanasia was approached".
Following a subsequent autopsy of the 300kg animal, Nováková revealed that its meat was then "used as food" for domestic carnivores in the zoo - with the post including a photo of a lion eating the meat.
"As it would happen in nature," the post concluded.
In the comments section, many people rallied to praise the zoo for its decision.
One person commended the zoo's honesty, writing: "The cycle of life. It's great that you publicly disclose info regarding the operation of the Zoo, hats off."
A second agreed, writing: "It's good that she didn't go to the conveyor site, at least there was food for the lions, it's natural in nature someone would eat her too, that's just the reality."
"It sounds harsh, but this is just the normal course of affairs. Unfortunately, the giraffe had it and the lion also has to eat. Basically I'd say you made the most of a bad situation," a third wrote.
And another commented: "Great that the zoo can show the public the reality. There’s nothing to be ashamed of! Unfortunately Disney is usually leading in public so people lose concept of reality..."
(Although, I'm pretty sure I recall Mufasa giving Simba the ever-so-important lesson on the "circle of life", but anyway...)
However, where some people disagreed was not over the decision to feed the giraffe to the lions, but actually over the image used in the post - with some Facebook users arguing that the photo should not have featured a lion eating the giraffe.
One Facebook user wrote: "Very sad ... even if it's the law of nature, the photo is out of place..."
Another agreed, writing: "I do not consider the photo choice the happiest. Maybe some nice snapshot of the same giraffe happily walking around the zoo? When we inform about the death of a person, we will give a nice photo while he is alive, not how worms come out of his eyes.... because it is also natural, right?"
In response to one of the critics, officials from the zoo said that the image was used in order to properly notify "attentive visitors" who would have noticed that the giraffe was missing.
On the whole, the zoo received an outpouring of praise for its candid and honest update, regardless of the heartbreaking news. I guess that truly is the circle of life.
