Marius (6 February 2012 – 9 February 2014) was a young male giraffe living at Copenhagen Zoo. Though healthy, he was genetically unsuitable for future captive breeding, as his genes were over-represented in the captive population, so the zoo authorities decided to euthanize him. Despite several offers to adopt Marius, which would have contravened zoo policy of selling to private owners, and an online petition to save him, he was euthanized on 9 February 2014. His body was then dissected and necropsied in a public educational class and then fed to the zoo's lions. The event received worldwide media coverage and generated responses from several organisations and individuals, including death threats to staff at the zoo.