Giraffe at Toronto Zoo dies under anesthesia during castration procedure

One of nan giraffes housed astatine nan Toronto Zoo died during a castration process connected Thursday morning, nan section attraction has announced.

The Toronto Zoo said unit were heartbroken and “devastated” to denote that two-year-old Matu, a Masai giraffe, had stopped breathing while nether wide anesthesia to beryllium castrated.

“Our squad did an unthinkable occupation cautiously readying for this process for months,” nan zoo said successful a statement. “As we shared yesterday, pinch immoderate process nether wide anesthesia we knew location would beryllium risks, particularly pinch ample vertebrates.”

The determination to castrate nan giraffe came because zookeepers wanted to support him pinch his mother and sisters alternatively of being isolated, nan zoo said. In bid to do that, he had to beryllium castrated.

Masai giraffes are endangered animals, pinch less than 35,000 surviving successful nan wild. The zoo said nan chaotic organization of these giraffes had declined 50 per cent successful nan past 30 years, chiefly because of hunting and residence loss.

“Our full Toronto Zoo squad is successful mourning and we cognize this will beryllium difficult news to process for our broader Zoo community,” nan connection continued, noting unit would beryllium fixed entree to condolences counselling.

An autopsy is group to return spot to find nan origin of death.