Don’t stuff Knut: Bear activists

Fans of Knut, Germany's superstar polar bear who died this month, are planning a demonstration today against plans for his body to be preserved and put on display in a Berlin museum.

Don't stuff Knut: Bear activists

Fans of Knut, Germany's superstar polar bear who died this month, are planning a demonstration today against plans for his body to be preserved and put on display in a Berlin museum.

Knut died suddenly aged four on March 19 and activists have been collecting signatures both on the internet and on the streets.

An online condolence book provided by his zoo is full of angry messages.

Mourners have sent a letter to the zoo authorities requesting them not to stuff Knut for posterity and cremate him instead

"Knut cannot be stuffed. When are you going to get the message!," reads one from Michael S. "Leave him alone for once! You cannot be serious. Let Knut rest in peace!"

An open letter to zoo director Blaszkiewitz said, "Nobody wants to look at a stiff, dead Knut."

According to a survey of more than 2,400 people published in the Berlin tabloid BZ, 73 per cent of those questioned are opposed to the bear being put on show at the museum.

Campaigners accuse the zoo, which has already made millions of euros from Knut in merchandising and entrance fees, of wanting to milk him for even more. They say Knut should be cremated.

Even if the plans go ahead, Knut is not actually going to be stuffed: a plastic model of an animal's body is made with the fur, skin or scales pulled over.

Heiner Kloes, in charge of bears at Berlin Zoo, is defiant. "When we have decided something, we are not going to let ourselves be swayed either by thousands of people, tens of thousands of people or hundreds of thousands."

Drowned

The polar bear suffered from encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain, which caused him to collapse before he drowned, a necropsy indicated.

Knut would have probably died from brain swelling if he had not drowned, officials said. "In the end, Knut actually drowned," said Achim Gruber, managing director of the animal pathology institute at Berlin's Free University

He said "severe brain damage that he suffered from for quite some time" caused uncontrollable muscle spasms.u00a0