Thousands Sign Facebook Petition To Stop Zoo Dissecting Dead Lion In Front Of Children

A petition to stop a Danish zoo dissect a dead lion in front of a group of children has now been signed thousands of times.

Odense Zoo is planning to carry out the dissection on the lion cub later this week - to coincide with a school break in Denmark.

The cub was killed because of zoo overpopulation and now over nearly 30,000 people have signed the petition to stop the dissection of the animal going ahead.

The petition states: “Thousands of animals are euthanised each year in zoos across Europe where managers feel that preserving a species is more important than the individual animals.

“They see nothing wrong with killing an animal due to lack of space, old age, or poor health.

“The Odense Zoo needs to understand that their obvious lack of respect for individual animals’ lives is unacceptable.”

However, the zoo has hit back at the petition, saying the dissection was “educational”.

Zookeeper Michael Wallberg Soerensen said: “We are not chopping up animals for fun.

“We believe in sharing knowledge.

"It is important not to give animals human attributes that they do not have.”

Odense Zoo is around 100 miles away from Copenhagen Zoo - who causes outrage last year when they killed a healthy giraffe and dissected it in front of guests.

Pics: Rex/Facebook