Germany animal activists are campaigning to ... kill a baby polar bear being reared by the Berlin Zoo after its mother rejected it!

Here's the activists' point of view:

The zookeeper, who has watched the hand-rearing of two animals, said Knut will find life intolerable once bars inevitably come between him and his carer.

"Each time his keeper leaves him, and he can't follow, he will die a little."

Frank Albrecht, an animal rights campaigner, had started the debate in the mass-circulation Bild newspaper by declaring the zoo was violating animal protection legislation by keeping him alive.

"If truth be told, the zoo should have killed the baby bear."

The zoo said no way:

"Knut was a healthy baby bear when we found him and so there was no reason for us to put him down," he said. "And there's certainly no reason to do so now."

To help Knut gain independence, he was already being left on his own for a couple of hours each day, and had been weaned off the bottle.

Polar bears were lonesome creatures, and so spending several years without the company of other bears would not be a problem, said Mr Schuele.

What do you think? Link - via Scribal Terror | There's even a cute video clip of the bear at Eduyayo: Link