A woman donated her teenage daughter’s pony, Chicago 57, to Aalborg Zoo in Aalborg, Denmark, to be fed to the park’s predator animals.
The family donated the pony’s body after the animal was euthanized at 22 years old
The horse was suffering from extreme eczema, and the woman says her daughter made the final decision on the animal’s fate
A woman donated her daughter’s pony to the Aalborg Zoo in Denmark, where it was later fed to the zoo’s lions.
Pernille Sohl says she donated her teenage daughter Angelina’s German riding pony, Chicago 57, after the animal was euthanized due to pain from a long-term health struggle in 2020.
“It might sound very dramatic and bizarre that you would feed your pet to animals in the zoo,” Sohl told The Times in a recent interview. She shared her story with the outlet after the Aalborg Zoo’s policy of accepting donations of unwanted pets to feed the zoo animals went viral in early August.
Sohl clarified, “It is not like they are alive when they are given to the predators.”
Chicago 57 was 22 at the time of his death. The pony was suffering from a form of eczema caused by mosquito bites that became extremely irritated in the summer, leading to painful open wounds that risked infection. Towards the end of his life, he had to wear a jacket and leg protection.
Baby Seven, Viral TikTok-Famous Horse Who Was Born Prematurely, Dies at 18 Months
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/horse-and-lion-zoo-081325-8ca3349f515f4a838a8f6a7744e7386d.jpg)
The 3 Dire Wolves Who Were Brought Back from Extinction Meet for the First Time in Captivating Video
Sohl gave her daughter Angelina, who was 13 at the time of Chicago 57’s death, the opportunity to decide whether to donate Chicago 57’s body.
“I gave Angelina the various options and she chose the one with the zoo, because it made the most sense,” Sohl explained.
Sohl added that her daughter chose that option because “she wanted to follow the food chain. She wanted Chicago 57 to benefit other animals.”
On July 31, Aalborg Zoo posted on its Facebook page about its existing pet donation policy, which allows locals to donate horses and “small pets” to the zoo to help feed the zoo’s predators. The big cats, as the Aalborg Zoo wrote at the time, need prey that “resembles what it would naturally hunt in the wild.”
“In zoos, we have a responsibility to imitate the animals’ natural food chain — for reasons of both animal welfare and professional integrity,” the zoo wrote in its Facebook post, which included a photo of a wild cat. “If you have an animal that needs to leave here for various reasons, you are welcome to donate it to us.”
The zoo added that trained staff members euthanize all donated animals “gently” before using them as “feed” so that “nothing goes to waste” and the “natural behavior, nutrition, and well-being” of the resident animals is ensured.
Cats and dogs are not accepted as donations to the zoo, The Times reported.
Our new app is here! Free, fun and full of exclusives. Scan to download now!
Sohl runs a small farm in Assens, Denmark, that lets children living with mental health issues spend time with horses.
Sohl had the zoo euthanize Chicago 57 and was present for the procedure.
“There was a zookeeper standing there cuddling and kissing him — as if it was me standing with him,” she told The Times. She was told afterwards that the pony’s body would be used to feed the zoo’s lions.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.
Aalborg Zoo, which attracts almost 500,000 guests per year, has been receiving pet donations since it was founded in 1935.
“We have always done it, as long as the zoo has existed,” Anette Sofie Warncke Nutzhorn, the chief zoologist, told Ritzau, a Danish news outlet. “The debate has surprised us, but we are happy to take it and stand by it. We are put into the world to talk about nature and ecosystems.”
