Animal Rights
Swiss Law Protects Goldfish, Guinea Pigs—But Not Popular Baby Hippo
Posted Mar 13, 2009, 01:16 pm CST
By Martha Neil
Under Swiss animal-rights provisions, guinea pigs must be kept in pairs to prevent loneliness and unwanted goldfish must be rendered unconscious before being flushed down the toilet.
But there is no protection under Swiss law for a superstar baby hippopotamus at the Basel Zoo facing a likely death sentence. Four-month-old Farasi will be euthanized if he can't find a home at another zoo before he grows old enough to be a threat to his father, reports the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.).
The 220-pound hippo—who is so popular that he beat out tennis star Roger Federer in a 2008 contest to name the "Swiss of the Year"—was born as a result of a common European zoo policy.
Under it, animals are allowed to reproduce even if there is likely to be no room for their offspring when they grow up, the newspaper notes. In such circumstances, zoos do not hesitate to euthanize excess animals and feed them to the lions.
In the U.S., by contrast, zoos frequently opt to impose some form of birth control.
Comments not appearing after a few seconds? Try emptying your cache ("Temporary Internet files"), making sure Javascript is activated, and refresh this page.