The Berlin Zoo is in trouble yet again. Spiegel Online reports that the zoo director, Bernhard Blaszkiewitz, had a goat from the petting zoo killed and fed to the zoo's wolves - in front of families visiting the zoo. Or, as Der Spiegel rather dramatically put it: At the Berlin Zoo, it's a short distance between the petting zoo and the wolves' habitat. But it can apparently also be the distance between being lovingly caressed by children and being dismembered by bloodthirsty predators.
Watching such a slaughter does seem like a lot of reality for a little kid who's just been feeding pellets to the fuzzy petting zoo denizens, but wolves are wild animals, after all. You could see the same thing on the Discovery Channel.
This incident probably wouldn't get so much attention if it didn't seem to follow a pattern of disregard for people's sentimental feelings about animals.
A criminal complaint filed against Blaszkiewitz accused him of selling zoo animals to slaughterhouses and to China, where they may have been turned into impotency cures. Plus, the director admitted killing kittens with his bare hands, and said he still thought it was the right thing to do.
Where is this zoo's PR department? Maybe all the to-do about Knut the polar bear wore them out and they don't have the energy to make sure the zoo director's not going around talking about wringing kittens' necks.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 2)
1. That's just great. A sadist in charge of a zoo. I'd be careful on Bring Your Pet to the Zoo Day. It might be boa constrictor feeding time.
Bob at 12:22PM on Jun 19th 2008
2. What is this world coming to when we think that it's just an animal. God made them to breath and show love as people do. Don't let those children see such a sight. You would think the zoo is a place that cares about how animals are treated. We never know what goes on behind the scenes.
Patsy Brewer at 12:41PM on Jun 19th 2008
3. McCain’s real military file is unflattering. To end all the speculation, McCain should authorize the Navy to release all his military record.
In June 2005, seven months after he lost his bid for president, Senator John Kerry signed the 180 waiver, authorizing the release of his complete military service record to the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press. ** Unlike Kerry, McCain shouldn't wait until after the election to do so. The Navy may claim that it already released McCain's record to the Associated Press on May 7, 2008 in response to the AP's Freedom of Information Act request. But the McCain file the Navy released contained 19 pages -- a two-page overview and 17 pages detailing Awards and Decorations. Each of these 17 pages is stamped with a number. These numbers range from 0069 to 0636. When arranged in ascending order, they precisely track the chronology of McCain's career. It seems reasonable to ask the Navy whether there are at least 636 pages in McCain's file, of which 617 weren't released to the Associated Press.
Some of the unreleased pages in McCain's Navy file may not reflect well upon his qualifications for the presidency. From day one in the Navy, McCain screwed-up again and again, only to be forgiven because his father and grandfather were four-star admirals. McCain's sense of entitlement to privileged treatment bears an eerie resemblance to George W. Bush's.
Despite graduating in the bottom 1 percent of his Annapolis class, McCain was offered the most sought-after Navy assignment -- to become an aircraft carrier pilot. According to military historian John Karaagac, "'the Airdales,' the air wing of the Navy, acted and still do, as if unrivaled atop the naval pyramid. They acted as if they owned, not only the Navy, but the entire swath of blue water on the earth's surface." The most accomplished midshipmen compete furiously for the few carrier pilot openings. After four abysmal academic years at Annapolis distinguished only by his misdeeds and malfeasance, no one with a record resembling McCain's would have been offered such a prized career path. The justification for this and subsequent plum assignments should be documented in McCain's naval file.
McCain's file should also include records and analytic reviews of McCain's subsequent sub-par performances. Here are a few cited in two highly favorable biographies, both titled John McCain, one by Robert Timberg and the other by John Karaagac.
Timberg:
"[A]fter a European fling with the tobacco heiress, John McCain reported to flight school at Pensacola in August 1958.... [H]is performance was below par, at best good enough to get by. He liked flying, but didn't love it. What he loved was the kick-the-tire, start-the-fire, scarf-in-the-wind life of a naval aviator. ...One Saturday morning, as McCain was practicing landings, his engine quit and his plane plunged into Corpus Christi. Knocked unconscious by the impact, he came to as the plane settled to the bottom....McCain was an adequate pilot, but he had no patience for studying dry aviation manuals.... His professional growth, though reasonably steady, had its troubled moments. Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines, which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral.... [In 1965] he flew a trainer solo to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy game. Flying by way of Norfolk, he had just begun his descent over unpopulated tidal terrain when the engine died. 'I've got a flameout,' he radioed. He went through the standard relight procedures three times. At one thousand feet he ejected, landing on the deserted beach moments before the plane slammed into a clump of trees."
Adds Karaagac:
"In his memoir, everything becomes a kind of game of adolescent brinksmanship, how much can one press the limits of the acceptable and elude the powers that be....The [fighter jocks'] ethos of exaggerated, almost aggressive sociability becomes an end in itself and an excuse for license. There is a tendency for people, not simply to believe their own mythology but, indeed, to exaggerate it.... Fighter jocks, like politicians around their campaign contributions, often press the limits of the acceptable. It is a type of mild corruption that takes place in a highly privileged atmosphere, where restraints are loosened and excuses made....McCain gives some hint in his memoirs about where he stood in the hierarchy among carrier flyers. Instead of the sleek and newer Phantoms and Crusaders, McCain flew the dependable Douglas A-4 Skyhawk in an attack, not a fighter squadron. He was thus on the lower end of the flying totem pole."
The genius of McCain's mythmaking is his perceived humility amid perpetual defiance. Having been a rebel without cause, and often a rebel without consequences, McCain apparently was not surprised when his Vietnamese captors went relatively easy on him compared to his fellow POWs. The Vietnamese military secretly and frequently filmed the American POWs to learn their propensities. Col. Pham Van Hoa of the Vietnamese People's Army Film Department was in charge of the filming. Asked recently for his dominant impression of McCain, the now-retired Van Hoa said that McCain "seemed superior to other prisoners." How so? "Superior in attitude towards them."
But when Mark Salter, McCain's closest aide and co-author, was asked by the Arizona New Times about the first McCain memoir, Faith of My Fathers, that he was then working on, Salter said "the book will showcase a humble McCain. When I worked on this book with him, he just kept saying, 'Other guys had it a lot worse. I think they took it easier on me because of who my dad was. . . . When they tied me in ropes, they'd roll my sleeve up to give it a little padding between the rope and my bicep, you know, little things I noticed. The only really hard time I had was when I didn't go home, and then it only lasted a week, and sometimes I felt braver, I felt I could get away with more.'"
Is McCain now getting away with more by hiding his official history and by having his national security adviser inflate McCain's resume with a bogus promotion to admiral humbly declined? If so, McCain may be attempting to hide why the Navy was in fact slow to promote him upwards despite his suffering as a POW and his distinguished naval heritage.
One possible reason: After McCain had returned from Vietnam as a war hero and was physically rehabilitated, he was urged by his medical caretakers and military colleagues never to fly again. But McCain insisted on going up. As Carl Bernstein reported in Vanity Fair, he piloted an ultra-light, single propeller plane -- and crashed another time. His fifth loss of a plane has vanished from public records, but should be a subject of discussion in his Navy file. It wouldn't be surprising if his naval superiors worried that McCain was just too defiant, too reckless and too crash prone.
Regardless, McCain owes it to the country to release his complete naval records so that American voters can see his documented history and make an informed decision.
iynaroc02 at 2:54PM on Jun 19th 2008
4. Will the real John McCain please stand up. For people that want to meet the real john McCain, please read these two articles:
http://www.realchange.org/mccain.htm
http://www.nationalreview.com/contributors/levin040501.shtml
Now that's the McCain, the reformer we know.
Data just released show America is behind most industrialized nations when it comes to life expectancy. That is why we need universal healthcare like Obama is advocating. Just food for thought:
- For average white American male, life expectancy is 72 years and John McCain is already 72 years old, so he might kick the bucket any time now
- For average black American male, the life expectancy is 70 years and Barack Obama is only 46 years old.
iynaroc02 at 2:56PM on Jun 19th 2008
5. It's a zoo where animals are supposed to be maintained in a habitat as close to their natural one as possible and for the most part, wild animals are carnivores. I agree that this particular scenario makes me cringe, but really they did nothing wrong. And disturbingly enough, there are those out there that would pay extra to have a special behind the scenes tour that included a feeding like this.
thinkin at 3:00PM on Jun 19th 2008
6.
Wow - Carnivores eating flesh is a controversy?
It's time for people to get a grip - A zoo is an educational tool, not a disney cartoon.
ex-christian at 3:09PM on Jun 19th 2008
7. The issue should not be that they are feeding goat meat to the wolves- they have to eat too- but that they killed the goat and fed the wolves the carcass IN FRONT of their young and impressionable guests! It is watching that goat be transformed from something loving and cuddly and warm and ALIVE into a shredded carcass ravaged by predators. They could have waited until the zoo closed or taken the goat in the back to euthanized, and killing kittens with bare hands- That director ought to be tried for animal cruelty and never allowed to work with animals again.
Teesha at 3:18PM on Jun 19th 2008
8. German zoos are quite different from American zoos - especially in certain policies.
My son and I were enjoying a visit to the Siegelbach zoo when the lynx was fed right in front of us. A live chicken was dropped into the enclosure and the chase was on!
My son, who was 9 at the time, found it fascinating and we had quite a conversation later concerning exactly where the foods in our diet come from.
Amazingly, he did not turn into an instant vegetarian nor did he immediately become a violent abuser/criminal/offender/sadist.
When a parent explains things, rationally and calmly to a child at certain ages, wonderful things can happen.
I have to say, I was dismayed and disgusted to see the chicken running for its life right in front of my young son but it's also a natural fact of life. In the end, we both learned some things about each other and life.
Of course we still attend special shows or educational experiences at the Siegelbach zoo. I wouldn't deprive him of learning more about the world we live in because animals have to eat too. We just don't go the predator habitats in the early morning or mid-afternoon hours anymore. ugh!
Bev1725 at 4:06PM on Jun 19th 2008
9. Now the animals can't be fed until after closing? Because of course in the wild they only eat after the world's zoos close. They should have been taken in back? Of course no one would have complained that the animals they came to see weren't on display. These are wild animals, if you feel your children are not ready to see them as they are then perhaps they should take a field trip to the library instead - but make sure they don't see any National Geographics while they're there. Yes, it's a gruesome sight, but it's their life - don't look!
thinkin at 4:07PM on Jun 19th 2008
10. did anyone think wolves were herbivores? Patsy, assuming bringing God into the issue has relevance, please recall He made the wolves carnivores. Maybe a little more reality about biology and children would not grow up ascribing human characteristics and personality traits to everything that breaths. Or do you prefer children be raised with delusions about animals?
Jim K198 at 4:26PM on Jun 19th 2008
11. We feed mice to boa contrictors...where do we draw the line?
David S. at 4:26PM on Jun 19th 2008
12. apparently thinkin, you weren't thinking when you read my comment- I said that they should do the killing of the animals meant for meat after the park closes or kill the animal in an area where the child that was just feeding it did not have to witness it's death! I do not have a problem with feeding predatory animals-like I said they have to eat too, and not just when the park is closed as you pointed out. I do not want myself or my children to have to watch an animal that we were just playing with die before/while it is being eaten!
Teesha at 4:40PM on Jun 19th 2008
13. apparently Teesha, you were reading things that weren't printed. Nowhere does Ada or the original article state that a goat that the children were just playing with was killed in front of them. Simply that fed the wolves a goat that they had already killed. The controversey was the wolves eating the goat in front of guests - not the goat being killed in front of guests. There is no report that the goat was killed in front of guests or that they witnessed its death. This si also not an isolated innocent but common practice in European zoos. The only reason for the drama here is previous controversy from this particular zoo director.
thinkin at 4:53PM on Jun 19th 2008
14. okay, my post was riddled with mispelling etc. so hopefully I've corrected most of it so it reads a little easier...
Apparently Teesha, you were reading things that weren't printed. Nowhere does Ada or the original article state that a goat that the children were just playing with was killed in front of them. Simply that they fed the wolves a goat that they had already killed. The controversy was that the wolves were eating the goat in front of guests - not a goat being killed in front of guests. There is no report that the goat was killed in front of guests or that they witnessed its death. This is also not an isolated incedent but common practice in European zoos. The only reason for the drama here is previous controversy from this particular zoo director.
thinkin at 6:08PM on Jun 19th 2008
15.
At a zoo in FL, I saw an eagle eat a small rodent.
It was fascinating,
The children about were not traumatized. They were not disgusted. They merely saw the life cycle in action....fascinating
mac at 11:29PM on Jun 19th 2008