Born to bring in visitor numbers - died because nobody wants to see you anymore
A drama is currently unfolding at Nuremberg Zoo that shows with scandalous clarity what ails modern zoos. 20 Guinea baboons, intelligent, social, sentient, suffering - born in captivity, reared under artificial conditions - are to die. Why? Because they are "too many". Because they are no longer "useful". And because institutions would rather be right than save lives.
The animals were bred to attract visitors to the enclosures. Now that they have grown older, the group has multiplied too much and there is a lack of genetic diversity, the zoo is talking about an "urgent problem". But the animals are simply doing what they have always been asked to do: survive and reproduce.
If there are too many of them, the bitter consequence is death by euthanasia. Zoothanasia.
Life in the queue to death
Officially, it is said that intensive efforts were made to find solutions: They were handed over to other zoos, placed abroad, talks with rescue centres. But all attempts allegedly failed. What is particularly striking, however, is how the transfer to the Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary, organised by the Great Ape Project (GAP) and Mission Earth e.V.now seems to be being deliberately torpedoed.
The sanctuary has declared that it cannot fulfil one of the zoo's conditions: the agreement to continue breeding the baboons it has taken in. And this is exactly where the rescue offer falls through1 Zoos want the right to kill - Comment 💬 https://www.prowildlife.de/aktuelles/kommentar/zoos-wollen-mehr-tiere-toeten/ .
Sanctuaries do not breed. It contradicts their basic understanding. They are not production centres - they are last refuges for animals that have become "too much" in a world that only values them in numbers. The GAP's statement that it cannot agree to the question of participation in the breeding programme is not a refusal, but a question of principle:
"A sanctuary is a place where animals don't have to reproduce. They are not bred - they are simply allowed to live."
Nuremberg Zoo uses this as a gesture of refusal - and turns it into an excuse not to part with the surplus baboons. Communication between the zoo, sanctuary and GAP now seems like a gruelling power game in which being right is more important than mercy, empathy or life.
The price of principle
Instead of releasing the 20 baboons into a life without bars, Nuremberg Zoo is sticking to its idea of controlled breeding management. It refuses to release them if they are not allowed to continue breeding - an absurd scenario when there have long been "too many baboons".
And so a conflict hardens that feels like a play from a Kafkaesque theatre. Two parties who want a consensus but speak different languages: Some talk of life, of responsibility, of ethical concern. The other talks about gene pools, breeding lines and management plans.
The victims? 20 individual, sentient lives. Not "breeding material", not "stock correction", but social, intelligent individuals2 Guinea-Baboon Factsheet - ARKive 🌐 https://web.archive.org/web/20190205214451/http://www.arkive.org/guinea-baboon/papio-papio/ .
And while the zoo is discussing breeding standards, the poison depot is apparently getting closer. If it really is euthanised, it would be a statement to all those who believe that zoos are places of species protection: animals that no longer fit are killed.
A system exposes itself
The case of the Guinea baboons clearly shows that zoos are not about living animal personalities, but about utility, efficiency and control. As long as animals are marketable, they are kept alive. If they cost too many resources or no longer fit into the image of the stud books - they are superfluous.
This practice is not new, but it is increasingly coming into the public eye. Zoos are openly fighting to establish mass and systematic killing as a necessary means of species conservation in breeding. The figures speak volumes:
- Only 149 animals of protected species were returned to the wild from European zoos in 15 years. This compares with around 170,000 animals kept in the zoos organised in the Association of Zoological Gardens (VdZ) alone, which were never intended for release into the wild. The fairy tale about contributing to species conservation is a lie3 Animal welfare organisation: "Zoos fail to protect species" 🌐 https://www.tierschutzbund.de/en/about-us/news/press/notification/killing-surplus-animals-zoos-fail-to-protect-species/ .
- Incidentally, most of these animals released into the wild came from projects outside the zoos.
- After several generations, zoo animals lose their natural survival skills. Reintroduction is often no longer possible4 Captive-breeding reduces survival in reintroduced carnivores 🌐 https://wilderness-society.org/captive-breeding-reduces-reintroduction-survival-in-carnivores/ .
Zoos justify their existence with the supposed protection of species, but in reality they function as commercially orientated institutions: Animals bring tickets, young animals bring headlines - and dead animals? Bring too few visitors. Cost less dead than alive5 Zoos: Profit-driven entertainment over conservation 🌐 https://deannadeshea.com/zoos-profit-driven-entertainment-over-conservation/ .
"No gorillas, polar bears, rhinos, elephants, tigers, pandas, or chimpanzees born in zoos will ever be released into the wild. Some zoos support mass poaching to get wild animals, and in 2019, both China and the U.S. pushed to import wild elephants."
Deanna DeShea, award-winning wildlife photographer6 Zoos: Profit-driven entertainment over conservation 🌐 https://deannadeshea.com/zoos-profit-driven-entertainment-over-conservation/
And politics?
Meanwhile, there are serious discussions at government level about whether the killing of healthy animals in zoos should be legalised under certain conditions - explicitly including marine mammals and primates7 Zoos must embrace animal death for education and conservation 🌐 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2414565121 .
Words such as "education", "science" and "population management" are intended to drown out the question of the fundamental ethical right to life. But if a country is allowed to kill healthy monkeys because they no longer fit in with the concept, then we need to talk not about protection, but about system failure.
The drama surrounding the Guinea baboons in Nuremberg is more than just a local misunderstanding. It is a symbol of a system that views animals not as someone, but as something.
They were born to be visited. Now they are to die because no one wants to see them.
And while the zoo and sanctuary continue to debate a "yes" or "no" in a breeding questionnaire, 20 sentient beings are threatened with death.
You don't need a questionnaire to do the right thing.
All it takes is the will.
- Article Baboons in the crosshairs read>
By Ruppelt Patrick 13. July 2025 - Article Born to be killed read>
From Ruppelt Patrick 16. July 2025 - Petition No killing of unwanted zoo animals. Sign now
- Petition to stop the killing of baboons at Nuremberg Zoo openpetition.de/!baboons
- Large-scale demo on 26 July in Nuremberg city centre with biologist Mark Benecke - organised by the "Great Ape Project", among others. Exactly, these are the people who, according to the zoo, are not interested.
