Danish zoo puts down healthy giraffe

A healthy young giraffe has been put down at Copenhagen zoo, despite a campaign to save it. Protesters carrying banners gathered outside the zoo this morning and thousands of people signed a petition to rescue the giraffe, called Marius, after the Danish zoo announced it was planning to kill the animal because of European laws on inbreeding.

A zoo vet prepares to carry out an autopsy on Marius.

  Other zoos, including the Yorkshire wildlife park in Britain, had offered to take it in. But according to the Danish newspaper BT, Marius was fed some rye bread at 9.15am and was killed shortly after by a shot in the head with a bolt gun.