Would you kill Knut???

(Taken from http://www.channel4.com/blogs/page/newsroom?entry=the_truth_about_knut_the)

If you were watching Channel 4 News last week, you can't fail to have been charmed by Knut the polar bear cub. The adorable infant is so unbelievably cute that many people who saw that footage still haven't recovered their full composure.

He was seen playing with a life-size cuddly toy of a brown bear, listening to Elvis Presley songs, and walking unsteadily towards the camera with mournful little eyes - because animal rights activists are apparently calling for him to be put to death.

The argument, supposedly, is that since Knut is a zoo-born bear, and has been rejected by his mother (how COULD SHE!?!?!), he will never grow up to be real polar bear, gamboling on the ice floes, and should therefore start his career as a fur coat as early as possible.

When the news broke, pictures of Knut were flashed across the world's TV screens. The Chinese panda cubs, those shameless media tarts (and defending world champions of cute) had some new footage out that day, but editors didn't bat an eyelid. No-one wanted anything but Knut.

Well, sorry to tell you but the Knut dossier has been more than a little sexed up. Frank Albrecht, the German animal rights activist who was supposedly advocating Knuticide, was in fact arguing the opposite side of the case.

He was talking about a case in Leipzig zoo, where a brown bear cub, born in similar circumstances, had been put down. The zoo was taken to court, but justified the claim on the basis that it was cruel for a bear to be reared by humans. And they won.

Mr Albrecht merely pointed out that if you were to follow the same logic, it would mean death to Knut. And before you could say 'delightful little bundle of cuteness', someone at the Bild newspaper took a firm hold of the wrong end of the stick. Knut became a star, and Mr Albrecht became an evil bear-killer to TV viewers across the world.


And if those aren't enough (and let's face it, no-one could ever get enough Knut) he has own blog: Knut, das Eisbärbaby.

Now you could almost believe that all the media outlets that covered the Knut story weren't interested in the actual truth, and just wanted to run some pictures of an unfeasibly cute little cub. I'm sure that's not the case. But we're glad to be able to bring you the bear facts.