http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070321/ap_on_sc/germany_polar_bear
By JOSH WARD, Associated Press Writer
Wed Mar 21, 7:36 AM ET
BERLIN - Berlin Zoo's abandoned polar bear cub Knut looks cute,
cuddly and has become a front-page media darling, but an animal
rights activist insisted Monday he would have been better off dead
than raised by humans.
"Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation
of animal protection laws," animal rights activist Frank Albrecht
was quoted as saying by the mass-circulation Bild daily, which has
featured regular photo spreads tracking fuzzy Knut's
frolicking.
"The zoo must kill the bear."
When Knut or "Cute Knut," as the 19-pound bear has become known
was born last December, his mother ignored him and his brother, who
later died. Zoo officials intervened, choosing to raise the cub
themselves.
The story prompted quick condemnations from the zoo, politicians
and other animal rights groups.
"The killing of an animal has nothing to do with animal
protection," said Wolfgang Apel, head of the German Federation for
the Protection of Animals.
Greens politician Undine Kurth called the suggestion "fully
unacceptable." Petra Pau of the opposition Left Party invoked the
widely-reported case of an Italian bear dubbed "Bruno" who wandered
last year into southern Germany, only to be killed by hunters at
the behest of local authorities worried about residents and
livestock.
"Berlin is not Bavaria, therefore it will be better for Knut than
Bruno," Pau said.
Albrecht told The Associated Press his beliefs were more nuanced
than reported by Bild, though he applauded the debate the article
had started.
He explained that though he thought it was wrong of the zoo to have
saved the cub's life, now that the bear can live on his own, it
would be equally wrong to kill him.
"If a polar bear mother rejected the baby, then I believe the zoo
must follow the instincts of nature," Albrecht said. "In the wild,
it would have been left to die."
The German animal rights organization "Four Paws" argued along
similar lines, saying it would not be right to punish the cub for a
bad decision made by the zoo.
Other activists have also argued that current treatment of the cub
is inhumane and could lead to future difficulties interacting with
fellow polar bears.
"They cannot domesticate a wild animal," Ruediger Schmiedel, head
of the Foundation for Bears, told Der Spiegel weekly in its Monday
edition.
Albrecht cited a similar case of a baby sloth bear that was
abandoned by its mother last December in the Leipzig city zoo and
killed by lethal injection, rather than being kept alive by
humans.
But Knut belongs to the Berlin Zoo, and their veterinarian Andre
Schuele, charged with caring for him, disagrees.
"These criticisms make me angry, but you can't take them so
seriously," Andre Schuele said. "Polar bears live alone in the
wild; I see no logical reason why this bear should be
killed."
Schuele also argued that given the increased rarity of polar bears
in the wild, it makes sense to keep them alive in captivity so that
they can be bred.
"Polar bears are under threat of extinction, and if we feed the
bear with a bottle, it has a good chance of growing up and perhaps
becoming attractive as a stud for other zoos," Schuele said.
Knut, who recently posed for a photo shoot with star-photographer
Annie Leibovitz for an environmental protection campaign, is
scheduled to make his public debut at the zoo later this week or
early next week, according to Schuele.
Until then, Germans can follow the bear's progress in a vast photo
spread and videos of Knut drinking from his bottle, bathing and
playing with teddy bears and soccer balls, all available on the
zoo's Web site.
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Sometimes I wonder if these animal activist are really championing
for animal rights 
There were reports earlier that Polar bears are under threat and
instead of trying to save them they want to kill a cute cub coz by
right it will die in the wild
Go figure
Poor Bear 
