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       Staff at a German zoo who culled a dozen healthybaboons and fed their remains to lions have received death threats.

       The Tiergarten Nuremberg zoo said it euthanised 12 Guinea baboons on 29 July because their enclosure had become too overcrowded, despite growing protests from activists and animal rights groups.

       Some of the baboons’ carcasses were used for scientific research, while others were fed to carnivores at the zoo, Tiergarten said.

       Zoo director Dr Dag Encke told Sky News that police were investigating after staff received threats.

       “The staff are really suffering, sorting out all these bad words, insults and threats,” he told the broadcaster. “The normal threat is ‘we will kill you, and we’ll feed you to the lions’.”

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       Protestors in front of the zoo in Nuremberg, Germany(Daniel Loeb/dpa via AP)

       “But what is really disgusting is when they say that’s worse than Dr Mengele from the National Socialists, who was one of the most cruel people in human history,” he added.

       “That is really insulting all the victims of the Second World War and the Nazi regime.”

       Josef Mengele was a Nazi officer who performed deadly experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War.

       Plans to reduce the baboon population were first announced in February after the number of animals rose to 43, which far exceeded the capacity of a facility built for 25 adults and their offspring.

       The zoo said the overcrowding had begun to fuel aggression and conflict among the group. Dr Encke said efforts to rehome the animals or use contraception had failed.

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       Several activists forced their way into the grounds of the zoo(Daniel Loeb/dpa via AP)

       “We love these animals. We want to save a species. But for the sake of the species, we have to kill individuals otherwise we are not able to keep up a population in a restricted area,” he told Sky News.

       The cull was carried out behind closed doors after the zoo shut for “operational reasons”.

       Activists who scaled the zoo’s fence on the day were detained by police, with some gluing themselves to the ground in protest.

       The decision drew outrage from campaigners, with animal rights groups pledging to file a criminal complaint.

       The zoo said it had tried to manage the population over the years, rehoming 16 baboons to zoos in Paris and China since 2011. But other facilities, including one in Spain, had reached capacity, it said.

       Animals are routinely euthanised in European zoos, but some cases have caused widespread controversy.

       In 2014, Copenhagen Zoo killed a healthy young giraffe, dissected it in front of visitors, and fed it to lions, prompting international outcry.

       And earlier this week, a zoo in Denmark appealed to the public to donate their small pets as food for its predators.

       The Aalborg Zoo has asked for donations of healthy and live chickens, rabbits, and guinea pigs to feed its predators, such as the Eurasian lynx.

       In a post on social media, the zoo said it is trying to mimic the natural food chain of the animals housed there “for the sake of both animal welfare and professional integrity”.