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, it said. 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 initially licked the newborns dry, but turned away from her offspring a few hours later.

"The fact that she then stopped rearing them for no apparent reason is emotionally sad from a human perspective, but is part of the behavioral repertoire of inexperienced mothers in the animal kingdom," said Zoo Director Jörg Junhold.

In the two days in which the mother no longer cared for them, the little tigers cooled down and became 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. He emphasized the zoo's scientific claim to breed animals without "misprints". For this reason, breeding the little tigers by keepers was out of the question.

Treatment of zoo animals criticized

Recently, several European zoos have come under fire for their treatment of animals. In July, Nuremberg Zoo killed twelve baboons due to lack of space. Animal rights activists consider this to be illegal and have filed a criminal complaint. According to the group "Animal Rebellion", around 60 people demonstrated outside the zoo on Sunday over the killing of the baboons.

The zoo in Aalborg, Denmark, sparked outrage by asking for donations of pets as food for predators.

Back in 2023, Leipzig Zoo also caused a storm of indignation when it slaughtered a healthy zebra stallion and fed it to its lions. No place had been found for the 15-year-old animal in another zoo. The zoo boss had defended the killing for feeding to predators as "common practice".