Zookeepers kill healthy baby giraffe with a bolt gun because he was 'surplus to requirements' and then feed him to the lions but not before doing an autopsy in front of young children

This is the horrific moment schoolchildren crowded around to watch as the body of a perfectly healthy giraffe was chopped up before being fed to lions.

Despite more than 20,000 people signing an online petition to save two-year-old Marius, staff at Copenhagen Zoo yesterday went ahead and shot the animal with a bolt pistol.

Young children stood at arm’s length as his carcass was skinned and dissected before the meat was thrown to the lions.

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Perfectly healthy: The giraffe named Marius who was shot dead and autopsied in the presence of visitors to the gardens at Copenhagen Zoo

READ MORE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2555079/Danish-zoo-kills-young-giraffe-deemed-surplus-feeds-lions.html