DIRTY DANES

So what comes into our heads when we think of Denmark? I mean, what comes to mind? For some it’s the seriously dark and violent Danish dramas serialized on television alongside which there’s the country’s reputation for a lively soft porn industry. Then there are the products of a thriving agrarian sector supplying us with Lurpak butter and miles of cheap tasteless bacon found in supermarkets just about everywhere. Others may think of Hamlet, Shakespeare’s Danish Prince in an endless tizz over his dysfunctional family. And then there’s Lego, Denmark’s chief claim to fame and major export to children the world over. Recently however, any pleasant thoughts we may have had about this country with its lovely ladies and skinny blonde men with wispy beards have been distracted by something seriously nasty. So nasty in fact that in a supermarket a few days ago I put back on the shelf the Lurpak butter I always buy and thought fuck it, I’m not buying anything Danish any more. It was the first time I’d ever done such a thing, tying my eating habit to conscience and while there are undoubtedly people who make the choice regularly it was a first time for me!

So why? In the last few days there was a news item on television that caught my attention. Copenhagen Zoo had a giraffe that they claimed was surplus to their requirements. Not because they couldn’t afford to keep it but because it didn’t fit in with their breeding program. Many of us must have seen this giraffe. A handsome young fellow with the endearing name of Marius, in perfect health and with bags of absolute charm. A most splendid and delightful creature. Now I’m not an animal lover who goes on demos but the young of many have a very definite way with them and more often than not evoke our delight and affability. They are what they are and if we’re not talking about rattlesnakes, scorpions and black widow spiders they’re more often friendly than not. However young Marius in Copenhagen Zoo was a definite charmer and when I heard that they planned to put him down for scientific reasons i.e. in the name of science, I was astonished. Yes, they announced, without any seeming remorse, Marius was surplus to a well-controlled scientific breeding program and had to go. Like the life of this affable giraffe was surplus to science. Quite clearly, from the way it came out, its life came a very clear second to a technological requirement along with some unknown European Community regulation and after a quick death from a bolt gun it would be butchered and fed to the lions.

No problem. The Danes of the Zoo’s breeding program were all men of science! If a young beast was surplus to the requirements of their scientific breeding program then they might as well stuff it in a tin. Well given examples from recent history, the logic of curtailing life because it’s deemed unnecessary or surplus isn’t that far removed from killing on equally questionable ideological grounds… killing, removing, or mass murder when science is mustered up to prove such things as racial inferiority. The real nastiness in this case was that with the wide publicity given to the zoo’s intention, many offers were made to rehouse the animal somewhere safe where it would be cared for such as other zoos or animal parks. These offers were all rejected by the scientists responsible for the breeding program on the grounds of EC Regulations and the giraffe killed not long after. I use the word killed here but actually it’s murder. Its transport elsewhere would have been free and could have easily been arranged. Instead, the authorities at Copenhagen Zoo refused to permit it. The giraffe was theirs and the giraffe had to die. Not that it was sick or ill or anything! No, the giraffe was theirs and its existence theirs to determine! WE DECIDE WHO’S GOING TO LIVE AND WHO’S GOING TO DIE!... and if we say the giraffe must die then it MUST die!

However before the killing these kindly people fed it a last meal of tasty black bread, one of its favorites, then minutes later put the gun to its head. Sorry but I really felt sickened. Making the beast think you were its friend and then doing that! Maybe I’m just a softy but I think that it’s shameful. Maybe we British just have a naturally protective instinct towards those who are dumb and helpless and weak. Those who regard us with trust and think that if we are kind to them we’ll be that way in the future and not do anything so vile as to harm them. What went on in the heads of these bloody zoo-keepers and animal breeding program operators so that they thought that taking its life might be mitigated by giving it a moment of pleasure with a tasty snack? Actually come to think of it what kind of people are these to think like this and be put in charge of the life and death of living things? Where oh where is your common compassion? Quite frankly you dirty the name of medical science with your cold heartless rationality and in the name of humanity I say that science doesn’t need people like you. By killing this young giraffe you did it a serious disservice and that you Danes are doubly dirty.    

So a reputable zoo in Yorkshire never got a charming young male giraffe that never did any harm to anyone, which is a lot more then you can say about the wretched zoologists of Copenhagen with their twitchy little neurotic concerns for perfect breeding! Sounds a bit like Eugenics to me. You know, the warped scientific rationalization for mass murder used by the Nazis in their quest to create a so called perfect species! A practice which was, by the way, alive and well in Sweden long into the 1980’s! However, now having been abolished there we know that it’s thriving in Denmark as part of their oh so compassionate animal welfare program.

And now there’s even worse on the horizon! Another zoo in Denmark has a giraffe that’s surplus to their breeding requirements and despite the mass protests that followed the killing in Copenhagen, are planning to do exactly the same! Danes in authority it seems simply don’t listen to anyone. Inglorious bastards it seems who need to be taught a serious lesson.

AND GUESS WHAT THE POLITICIANS ARE PLANNING IN BELGIUM, CENTRE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY? WAIT FOR IT NOW… IT’S EUTHANASIA FOR CHILDREN.

Let it be a warning to all of us… There are many disguises for murder.