Danish Patsy?

A rather odd debate is developing concerning the fate of a young male giraffe ('Marius') in Copenhagen zoo (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/marius-giraffe-killed-copenhagen-zoo-protests). The animal had genes that were 'too common' for him to be employed in a breeding programme (people in zoos have very limited capacities for most species and attempt to limit 'inbreeding' wherever possible). Although there were offers to take Marius from several zoos, he was given a rye-bread treat before being shot in the head and publically dissected. He was apparently killed in this manner, so he could be fed to the lions (the drugs employed in euthanasia would have ruled this out). Although most of the zoo's actions are defendable, I do think that the public dissection was bound to generate adverse publicity (it's more than a smidge insensitive) but people do say that there 'is no such thing as bad publicity'. I don't think, however, that this has helped zoos with a positive 'conservation' message (there are. apparently, no release programmes for captive-bred giraffes).