EUROVISION Song Contest next to Copenhagen zoo?

Dear EBU Organisers and EBU Reference Group,

About two months ago we all were shocked hearing that Copenhagen zoo slaughtered an innocent baby giraffe (Marius), due to lack of space and eugenics reasons. Despite the fact that people from all over the world had opposed the zoo's intentions, they did proceed to the killing of Marius on 9th February 2014 infront of the eyes of visitors and young children. Then they fed him to the lions. They ignored an international petition which garnered more than 27,000 signatures, as well as offers from several zoos to rehouse the creature.

Six weeks after shooting the 18-months old giraffe, Copenhagen zoo killed 4 lions for the same (SHAME) reasons! Well it seems that your life doesn't value if you happen to be a poor animal and you live around Denmark! Think about the annual slaughtering of dolphins and whales in the Faroe islands as well as the dog brothels. Do you really believe that this is a sign of culture? And how culture is being judged? By peoples' actions or maybe by festivals? Well some people apparently think by festivals, so they are getting prepared for the 2014 Eurovision song contest which will be held in Copenhagen this May. This contest is considered as a culture event and I agree. In fact I, myself, am a Eurovision fan and I use to watch it on my TV every year. But I also remember what Mahatma Gaudhi had said once:

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

I strongly believe that this is a great opportunity for real human beings to send a message with huge impact: "HUMANS SHOULD PROOVE THEIR CULTURE BY RESPECTING OTHER SPECIES LIVES, NOT BY HOSTING CULTURE EVENTS".

Therefore, we ask EBU to support this message and to call off the Copenhagen 2014 Eurovision song contest or to reassign it to some other city of Denmark or to some other country.

Let’s suppose that EBU made our request true. There would be a statement saying something like that: “EBU calls off the 2014 Copenhagen Eurovision song contest as a penalty for Copenhagen zoo’s actions” or “EBU reassigns the 2014 Eurovision song contest to…(name of the new city/country) as a penalty for Copenhagen zoo’s actions. It doesn’t really matter what city/country that would be. Neither should EBU search for the place where murders of animals don’t ever happen. The meaning of EBU’s action is what really matters. Because people will get the message: “Respect other species lives otherwise you will not be considered as civilized humans” - “Respect other species lives, otherwise there is going to be a penalty.” If such a thing happened, people from Denmark would blame it on Copenhagen zoo. And that maybe would make the zoo’s people reconsider their practices. Next year another incident somewhere else? Penalty again! Can’t you see it? This is going to be a detterent, a measure of pressure for a better world.

Please do not misunderstand my point. I don’t hate the Danes neither the country and of course atrocities happen throughout the whole planet and probably there is no innocent place on earth. I am just trying to take advantage of global events to spread out a compassion for animals message. I would like you to know that people from Denmark have also signed my petition. Do you really believe that they are against their own country? Do you really believe that they don’t love Denmark? They just understand my intentions and they agree! Just like I have opposed to actions against animals happened in my own country. But things that happen here though not rare, they are rather individual persons’ actions not mass events. And I am fighting against those actions too, because they make me feel ashamed of being a human! I understand that some Copenhagen citizens will probably feel offended by my petition but they need to realize that some other people there are the ones who really make them feel ashamed of. And sometimes embarrassment is the only way to make the world better. I don’t make generalizations against people from Denmark. I just hope that some people here and there and around the world, will make generalizations about what culture is really about.

We hope that we are going to have your support. Thank you in advance,

Marilena Psaroulis and the world's citizens who have signed