Officials at a zoo in Sweden are facing backlash after the zoo shot and killed three chimpanzees and injured another Wednesday afternoon.
The chimpanzees somehow escaped their enclosure and meandered around the zoo, which is closed for the season, the Furuvik Zoo said on Facebook. Even though the public was not at the Furuvik Zoo, officials said the animals still posed a threat to staff. (RELATED: Camera Catches Mysterious Beast Roaming In Texas, Officials Ask For Public’s Help)
“Chimpanzees can be thought to be peaceful but they are extremely dangerous,” the zoo said on Facebook. “They are fast, very strong and generally fearless.”
Tranquilizing the chimpanzees would have endangered people’s lives, zoo officials said. They also explained that trying to use tranquilizer darts, which must be fired from a short range and take at least 10 minutes to kick in, would have endangered staff.
However, a former caretaker at Furuvik Zoo accused the zoo of panicking, BBC reported. Cognitive zoologists from the University of Lund, spent year’s researching the zoo’s chimpanzees, have suspended their partnership with the zoo.
Researcher Mathias Osvath, who knew the chimpanzees personally, said they did not present a real danger.
The mass shooting of chimpanzees at Sweden’s Furuvik Zoo is indeed insane. More crazy is that they, or any animals, are locked in zoos (prisons) in the first place. https://t.co/3iobasY40w
— Shalin Gala (@ShalinGala) December 16, 2022
“If I’d met them in the park, my pulse would have risen, but I wouldn’t have been afraid for my life. It’s a tragedy,” he told BBC. “I’ve hugged Manda, I’ve kissed Linda and I’ve had tugs of war with Santino,” Osvath told BBC.
The zoo confirmed Friday that chimpanzees Linda and Torsten had been killed. Of the other two — Santino and Manda — one is confirmed dead and the other injured and feared dead, but the zoo appears to have been unable to confirm which is which.