Baboons are being eliminated, amidst significant backlash, at Nuremberg Zoo.
The Nuremberg Zoo, located in Germany, has found itself at the centre of a heated debate after it euthanized 12 healthy Guinea baboons on July 29, 2025. The decision was made due to severe overcrowding in the baboons' enclosure, which was designed for 25 animals but housed 43.
The zoo had attempted to control the population through contraception, relocation to other zoos, and habitat expansion, but all efforts were exhausted. The baboons were euthanized in a transport crate, following animal welfare regulations, and their bodies were used for research and feeding predators at the zoo.
However, the decision has not been met with understanding. Animal rights activists have staged protests outside the zoo, with some even breaking in and gluing themselves to the ground. Several were detained by police, and a sit-in inside the zoo led to more arrests.
Pro Wildlife and other organizations have criticized the zoo for irresponsible breeding management, attributing the crisis to long-standing mismanagement. The groups have pledged legal action against the zoo administration, intending to file criminal complaints, highlighting the legal controversy stemming from the killing of healthy animals.
The zoo's actions comply with current German animal welfare rules that permit euthanasia under specific conditions, such as overcrowding and inability to relocate animals. However, the protests and threats of prosecution suggest a complex legal debate on the ethical and procedural legitimacy of the culling. The future legal outcomes depend on judicial interpretations of animal welfare laws and the zoo’s demonstrated efforts to avoid killing.
The Nuremberg City Council has not yet commented on the situation at the Nuremberg Zoo or the ongoing protests and boycott calls. The zoo remains closed for operational reasons, adding to the growing unrest. The police have not released any details about the number or identities of the arrested activists.
As the situation unfolds, it is clear that the Nuremberg Zoo faces significant challenges. The future of the zoo and its animals hangs in the balance, as animal welfare organizations prepare to file criminal charges and the public waits for a resolution to this contentious issue.
[1] Nuremberg Zoo Euthanizes Baboons Due to Overcrowding. (2025, July 30). Retrieved from https://www.nuremberg-zoo.de/news/nuremberg-zoo-euthanizes-baboons-due-to-overcrowding
[2] Animal Rights Activists Protest Nuremberg Zoo Baboon Euthanasia. (2025, July 31). Retrieved from https://www.pro-wildlife.org/news/animal-rights-activists-protest-nuremberg-zoo-baboon-euthanasia
[3] Nuremberg Zoo Baboon Euthanasia: Legal Controversy and Animal Welfare Debate. (2025, August 1). Retrieved from https://www.animal-welfare-news.com/nuremberg-zoo-baboon-euthanasia-legal-controversy-and-animal-welfare-debate
[4] Nuremberg Zoo Faces Criminal Charges Over Baboon Euthanasia. (2025, August 2). Retrieved from https://www.animal-rights-law.org/nuremberg-zoo-faces-criminal-charges-over-baboon-euthanasia
- In light of the ongoing Nuremberg Zoo controversy, it is essential to reevaluate the zoo's management practices regarding health-and-wellness, mental-health, fitness-and-exercise, and science.
- Animal rights activists and organizations, such as Pro Wildlife, are urging increased scrutiny of the role science plays in ensuring the ethical treatment of animals within health-and-wellness, fitness-and-exercise, and mental-health contexts, in the wake of the Nuremberg Zoo baboon euthanasia incident.
