Leipzig Zoo puts three tiger cubs to sleep

Leipzig Zoo has euthanized three tiger cubs a few days after their birth. The mother had not taken care of the cubs, the zoo announced. Therefore, the three little Amur tigers had to be spared suffering. Hand-rearing was out of the question in terms of species-appropriate wild animal husbandry.

Mother still inexperienced

The cubs were born on Wednesday evening. It was the first litter of the tigress "Yushka". The still inexperienced cat had turned away from her offspring a few hours after the birth. Such behavior is emotionally sad from a human perspective, but is part of the animal kingdom, said zoo director Jörg Junhold.

In the two days that the mother had stopped looking after them, the little tigers had cooled down and become increasingly weaker."At this point, when the cubs no longer show any active behavior
and thus no longer stimulate the mother to feed or produce milk, we have to live up to the heavy responsibility and spare the cubs the suffering of starvation," explained veterinarian Andreas Bernhard.

Zoo wants to continue breeding

The zoo wants to continue trying to breed the species with the Amur tigress "Yushka". "In the long term, she will be able to make her contribution to the survival of the species with natural breeding," explained Zoo Director Junhold.