Newborn captive polar bear: Too soft to live?

He's just 3-months-old, cute, fluffy and healthy - but zoologists in Germany want to kill little Knut with a lethal injection, because they say it is cruel to keep him alive. Knut is the first polar bear cub born in Berlin Zoo to survive in 30 years.He was born on 5 December last year and immediately rejected by his mother Tosca - a grumpy, former circus performer. Zoo keepers rescued the helpless fella with a fishing net, placing him in an incubator, where they hand fed him with human milk and cod liver oil every half hour. Knut survived, but therein lies the rub: he is just not fierce enough.The pampered creature - who has become something of a celebrity in Germany - is a big softie. According to The Times: "He is fed chicken puree, was given his own Christmas tree, sleeps with a teddy bear, plays with a football and his pony-tailed keeper strums Elvis Presley songs to improve his mood."Animal-rights campaigners say Knut will now never grow to become a "proper polar bear", and should have been killed when his mother rejected him. "Hand-feeding is not appropriate to the species and is in grave violation of the animal protection laws," one campaigner said. "Legally speaking, the zoo should kill the baby bear. Otherwise it is condemning the bear to a dysfunctional life and that too is a breach of the law.""One should have had the courage to kill him much earlier," agrees Wolfram Ludwig, director of Aachen zoo, also in Germany.What do you reckon? If the point of a zoo is to protect biodiversity by raising endangered animals in captivity for their later release into the wild, then, yes, the Berliners have failed in their mission. But, in trying to nurture examples of such species in captivity, and in terms of endearing a wild and dangerous animal to the general public, they have surely succeeded.So, in the 21st century, what are zoos for?