The zoo in Aalborg, Denmark has made an online appeal to donate live pets as food for the predators. The park is asking pet owners for chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs, but horses are also welcome.
“Zoos have a responsibility to mimic the natural food chain of the animals in the interest of animal welfare,” Aalborg Zoo writes in a statement on Facebook.
The European lynx in particular would be happy with the pets. That predator needs “a whole prey, which resembles the prey it would hunt in the wild,” the zoo explains. The pets must be healthy. The zoo also does not want to take more than four at a time.
On the website, the zoo also writes that it is “grateful to welcome live horses”. These are then euthanized to be processed into food.
Finally, the zoo states that owners can treat the transfer of their horse as a donation. This makes it tax deductible.