• Germany edition
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Let’s keep our paws off Knut’s balls

Published: 3 Mar 10 12:54 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/opinion/20100303-25641.html

Castrate Knut? Overzealous animal rights activists need to keep their paws off Berlin’s beloved polar bear, argues Bernd Matthies from Der Tagesspiegel.

Knut is doing just fine, thank you. Berlin’s leading furry citizen is all grown-up. No longer an adorable celebrity fuzzball, Knut’s become a man – so to speak. He’s even got a live-in girlfriend at his small yet centrally located bear pad in the German capital. The only thing missing for an ursine happily-ever-after to this story is a couple of cute cubs of his own.

That is, if it weren’t for the killjoys at Peta. This week the animal rights group claimed that Knut and his lady Giovanna shared the same grandfather – which could lead to detrimental inbreeding should the two decide to start a family. The solution? Castrate Knut!

Perhaps not. First of all, the demand to snip Berlin’s favourite furry son is coming from an organisation known for its hunger for publicity. Peta would sell its own grandmother to create a few choice headlines – if you known what I mean.

Besides, what kind of signal does it send if Berlin neutered a city institution known around the globe? And let’s not mention the whole panda baby bust at the Berlin Zoo, shall we? If anything, the still extremely broke German capital could use another baby polar bear or two to keep the tourists happy.

So let’s keep our paws off Knut’s balls.

This commentary was published with the kind permission of Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, where it originally appeared in German. Translation by The Local.

Produced in cooperation with
Der Tagesspiegel

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Your comments about this article:

#1
18:36 March 3, 2010 by magdelana
I woul think it is more rational to keep Knut intact so he can be used as a stud seeing as our polar bears are drowning here in Canada from global warming. A polar bear can only swim about a 100 k's before drowning and they are running out of food as well as still being hunted. Their days are numbered. I realize he would have to maybe be seperated.
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#2
19:57 March 3, 2010 by CraigS
Soak 3 PETA members in teriyaki sauce for 30 minutes and feed them to Knut and his ladyfriend. They'll taste just like chicken.

Leave the bears alone.
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#3
00:36 March 4, 2010 by yrrah
Leave the bear alone ! We are lucky enough to have this fine young bear who could be stud anywhere in the world. These PETA folks just don't make any sense . Who cares what they think !
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#4
10:19 March 4, 2010 by Heinrich der Zweite
Knut's got more in his balls, than Peta's got between it's ears!
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#5
17:11 March 4, 2010 by motimer
dear magdelana JUST IN CASE YOU HAVENT BEEN INFORMED GORES PONZI SCHEME IS OVER THE Y HAVE BEEN FOUND OUT! KNUTES SPERM SHOULD BE BANKED CASTRATION WILL MAKE HIN SAFER TO HANDLERS AND MANKIND WI BENIFIT BY HAVING LITTLE KNUTS THROUGH ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
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#6
17:22 March 4, 2010 by Frantz
Why can't Knut date that beauty from Stuttgart - Flocke. Leave the German bears alone and don't use them to promote Al Gore's global warming fantasy.
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#7
11:23 March 5, 2010 by Janner67
motimer, you don't need to shout!

One question - do the interfering little busybodies from PETA require that the polar bears that live in the wild do a background check on their prospective mates before procreating?
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#8
17:18 March 5, 2010 by liorabs
Dont Castrate.

1) Bears are not people and first generation in breeding might not be detrimental.

2) The white bears imo are endangered anyhow.

3) get him another girlfriend who is not of his line. If you cant find another one this means as in number 2 that they are an endangered species.

4) Human rights activists - I am with you 1001% as regards experimentation on animals, but this is not experimentation. Let the bear live what it was created for and if one of the cubs is a little not right, take care of the cub, just as human beings when they are not exactly right are also taken care of. Dnt do genetic cleansing to this animal. You are thinking like people, not like an innocent young white bear .....

Liora
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#9
23:26 March 8, 2010 by Dan Quixote
In this case PETA are not only obnoxious, they are just plain wrong. The zoos have what is called a Species Survival Plan for polar bears. Part of this plan is to keep track of who is related to whom, and breed them so as to maximize the chances for the captive population to survive without bringing any new individuals in from the wild. The Polar Bear stud-book keeper works at the Rostock Zoo, and keeps track of who is related to whom. So the zoos know exactly how closely related the two bears are. Even if PETA does happen to be right about the relationship in this case, first cousins may occasionally be bred with no harmful effects. If it goes on for multiple generations, or siblings breed, that is where the really bad effects start. I trust PETA's scientific judgment on this one about as much as I trusted their legal opinion when the sued the towns of Catskill and Fishkill, both in New York, saying the towns' names encouraged cruelty to cats and fish.

Funny how the publicity stunt encourages an action which PETA, under other circumstances, would label as cruelty.
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#10
23:42 March 18, 2010 by TomUSA
Help the World, Castrate PETA not Knut. the world would be a happier place.
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