Dangerously Cute: Knut

Watch this incredibly adorable video of Knut, the (famous!) baby polar bear who was born in the Berlin Zoo three months ago:

Isn’t he the freakin’ cutest? Knut was actually a twin, but his polar bear sibling died ay birth. His mama rejected him, so he’s been raised by humans. Now here’s the shocking part– animal rights activists say he should be KILLED 🙁 🙁 🙁

Animal rights activists, as SPIEGEL reported Monday, aren’t so enthralled with the polar bear baby. They are concerned that Knut, who is being raised by human hand after his mother rejected him, is in danger of losing touch with the bear necessities. Some would like to see him dead.

“Raising him by hand is not appropriate to the species but rather a blatant violation of animal welfare laws,” animal rights activist Frank Albrecht told the mass circulation newspaper Bild, whose front page headline Monday read “Will Sweet Knut Be Killed by Injection?”

Berlin Zoo is allowing Knut to be raised in such a way that the bear will have a behavioral disorder for the rest of his life, Albrecht believes. “In actual fact, the zoo needs to kill the bear cub,” he adds.

He’s not alone. Wolfram Graf-Rudolf, director of the Aachen Zoo, told the newspaper, “I don’t consider it appropriate for the species that the little polar bear is being raised on a bottle.” The animal will be fixated on his keeper and not be a “real” polar bear, he says. However he feels it is now too late to put Knut out of his supposed misery. “The mistake has been made. One should have had the courage to put him to sleep much earlier.”

Read the rest of the story at Speigel.

Killing him can’t be the only option! What do you guys think? 🙁