The extermination of animals in zoos in wartime

The extermination of animals in zoos during wartime - the deliberate killing of animals in zoos during the period of hostilities, which local authorities consider dangerous to prevent threats to human life or material damage if animals can escape from bombing, for example cells.

Intentional extermination of animals in zoos took place mainly during the Second World War . The most famous of these acts was the massacre of various animals in the Japanese zoo Ueno , which took place for several months in the second half of 1943, when American air raids on the country became more frequent. It is known that elephants of the zoo were killed on August 11, 1943 ^[1] , 27 lions and 14 horses were soon starved to death, then it was the turn of bears, tigers, leopards, poisonous snakes and many other animals that were killed in a variety of ways - from strangulation and deprivation of food before poisoning and killing with edged weapons.

This action was the largest and longest, but not a single one. In many zoos and zoological gardens of Japan, the intentional killing of animals continued in 1944, and not only predatory or very large animals were destroyed: for example, 13 cows were killed at the Kyoto zoo by order of the authorities. In the context of the extermination of zoo animals in Japan during the war years, the activities of Kitao Eichi, director of Higashiyama Zoo, who categorically refused to kill the elephant who lived there and saved the majority of the inhabitants of the zoo, sentenced to destruction by the authorities, except for a bear, a lion and two horses that were killed by military, became famous. ^[2] . The extermination of animals in Japanese zoos after World War II became the theme for the creation of a number of works of art.

Despite the fact that such a term is used primarily in Japanese historiography (where it even has a separate name - 戦 時 猛 獣 処分, letters. “Killing animals in connection with the war”), actions of this kind occurred during the war and in a whole series other countries, including Germany, the UK and the USA. So, in Belfast Zoo in 1941, when the bombing of the city by German aviation began, they destroyed the lions, wolves, hyenas, polar bears, but did not touch the elephant; poisonous snakes, lizards and scorpions were exterminated at the London Zoo ^[3] . In Germany, at the direction of the authorities, in 1940, many different animals were exterminated in Wuppertal ^[4] ; in 1944, in connection with the increasing air raids, lions were exterminated at the Frankfurt Zoo.