[Vision2020] Gay Penguins Expelled From Zoo

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of Daily Mail Online at:

http://tinyurl.com/6m8okf
 
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Gay penguins expelled from zoo colony for stealing eggs are given their 
own to look after following animal rights protest
By Caroline Graham

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Who's the daddy? The segregated penguin couple, right, are seen here in 
their own enclosure quarrelling with another male over stolen eggs.
http://tinyurl.com/6kezmf
 
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A pair of gay penguins thrown out of their zoo colony for repeatedly 
stealing eggs have been given some of their own to look after following a 
protest by animal rights groups.

Last month the birds were segregated after they were caught  placing 
stones at the feet of parents before waddling away with their eggs.

But angry visitors to Polar Land in Harbin, northern China, complained it 
wasn't fair to stop the couple from becoming surrogate fathers and urged 
zoo bosses to give them a chance.

In response, zookeepers gave the pair two eggs laid by an inexperienced 
first-time mother.

'We decided to give them two eggs from another couple whose hatching 
ability had been poor and they've turned out to be the best parents in the 
whole zoo,' said one of the keepers.

'It's very encouraging and if this works out well we will try to arrange 
for them to become real parents themselves with artificial insemination.'

Wildlife experts at the park explain that despite being gay the three-year-
old male birds are still driven by an urge to be fathers.

'One of the responsibilities of being a male adult is looking after the 
eggs. Despite the fact that they can't have eggs naturally, it does not 
take away their biological drive to be a parent,' said one.

One campaigner who did not want to be named welcomed the move and 
said: 'It wasn't fair to stop them becoming parents and keep them apart 
from all the other birds just because of the way nature has made them.'

Last month zookeepers said the couple were removed from the group not 
because of discrimination, but so as not to disturb the colony during 
hatching time.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"For a lapse Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist Universalist 
Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason ever to go 
to work."

- Roy Zimmerman


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