Zoo director Dag Encke had already foreseen in an interview with SZ at the beginning of February that not everyone would recognize the need to kill the Guinea baboons that are surplus to the Nuremberg primate enclosure. On Saturday, the Nuremberg zoo was confronted with a blockade campaign by the environmental group Animal Rebellion. As a police spokeswoman reported to the German Press Agency, 24 activists sat down in front of the zoo’s main entrance that morning and some of them chained themselves to a gate with massive iron chains. At the entrance they attached a banner with the inscription “Only freedom is species-appropriate.”
The animal rights activists acknowledged the action in a statement. “Monkeys have the right to life, physical integrity and freedom – just like we do,” activist Scarlett Treml was quoted as saying in the report.
The Nuremberg baboon enclosure is designed for 25 adult animals and their offspring; 35 adult monkeys and a total of 45 animals live there at the moment. Because the zoo administration sees the group’s social structure at risk, it announced that it would have to kill individual animals as a “population management” measure. At that time, no other zoos wanted to take Guinea baboons. However, there have now been several offers from institutions that want to take animals. The park is currently examining this.
Since, according to the police, the demonstrators did not comply with the request to vacate the square, police officers broke up the meeting and carried the activists away. The police cut the iron chains with the help of the fire department. Some of the protesters continued to demonstrate in a space assigned to them near the entrance.
Visitors were also able to enter the zoo during the event. There were no bigger snakes. The demonstration started at 7:30 a.m. The zoo opened its doors at 9 a.m. The police recorded the demonstrators’ personal details and are now investigating suspected coercion.