The director of the world famous Berlin Zoo has been accused of overbreeding animals and selling the “spares” to be slaughtered and used in Chinese medicines.
Bernhard Blaszkiewitz is under pressure to quit following the criminal complaint by a leading Green politician that he allegedly illegally sold the animals for slaughter for profit.
He strenuously denies the allegations but they are now being considered by the Berlin public prosecutor who will decide on whether charges will follow.
A pygmy hippopotamus and a family of bears are cited among the animals that were allegedly traded to be killed. It was claimed they ended up at a Belgian slaughterhouse.
The allegations are a public relations disaster for the zoo following a huge rise in its profile over the past year with the celebrity of the polar bear Knut, the cub abandoned by its mother to be raised by human hand. Knut has turned the zoo into Berlin’s biggest tourist attraction and earned it £6 million.
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