Gay penguins won't go straight

[Phil Meloy]

Gay penguins won't go straight

www.ananova.com

A German zoo's plans to tempt its gay penguins to go straight by importing more females has been declared a failure.

The female penguins were flown in especially from Sweden in an effort to encourage the Humboldt penguins at the Bremerhaven Zoo to reproduce.

But the six homosexual penguins showed no interest in their new female companions and remained faithful to each other.

Zoo Director Heike Kueck said: "The relationships were apparently too strong."

A keeper confirmed that the male couples had adopted rocks which they were guarding like eggs in their caves.

The zoo has said that it will try again in Spring 2006, because the penguins are an endangered species and need to be encouraged to breed.

Edited February 11, 2005 by Phil Meloy

[Rooster_Ties]

They still won't go straight????

( Hell's bells, Phil -- you started the other thread too. )

[Phil Meloy]

They still won't go straight????

( Hell's bells, Phil -- you started the other thread too. )

There's nothing like a good follow-up story.

[Phil Meloy]

The controversy continues...

Zoo defends bid to mate gay penguins

By Kate Connolly in Berlin - [Telegraph, UK]

(Filed: 14/02/2005)

The director of a German zoo has defended her campaign to mate a group of homosexual male penguins with females, arguing that it is the only way to preserve a dying breed from extinction.

Heike Kück said that she had been inundated with criticism by the gay lobby after making public her plan.

"We're simply trying to help save a threatened species," she said of the Humboldt penguin, a bird whose homosexual tendencies are well known to zoologists.

Six penguins at Bremerhaven Zoo in north-west Germany provoked excitement across the world when, in the absence of any females, they were discovered wandering around in pairs, trying to mate with each other and sitting on stones as if they were eggs.

Gay groups reacted with outrage when four female penguins were flown in from Sweden to allow keepers to see if they had any influence on the homosexual pairings.

Since then gay activists from as far afield as Australia have been protesting at the zoo's attempts to "cure" the penguins of their homosexuality. The zoo has been bombarded with threatening letters and telephone calls.

[JSngry]

I dunno, I kinda dig chicks in tuxedos.

But then again, I'm not a gay penguin.

[DTMX]

I dunno, I kinda dig chicks in tuxedos.

Chick in Tuxedo:

[DTMX]

It's the hat, isn't it?

[Jim Alfredson]

I hope the religious right get behind this and start passing laws against animal homosexual relationships. You know, if we start letting animals go all homo on each other, then soon there won't be anymore animals!!

[neveronfriday]

A keeper confirmed that the male couples had adopted rocks which they were guarding like eggs in their caves.

I adopted rock when I was around 13 years old.

I went straight again when I turned 21, or so.

There's hope yet for those penguins (although if SWEDISH female penguins couldn't affect a change, probably nothing will).

Cheers!

[DTMX]

You know, Batman was always tangling with the Penguin. Maybe his exposure to the penquin lifestyle can explain the last thought balloon of this panel:

[Jim Alfredson]

LOL!

[GregK]

as long as they don't marry.........

[Phil Meloy]

Penguins can stay gay

A German zoo has scrapped plans to break up homosexual penguin couples following protests from gay rights groups.

The Bremerhaven Zoo had earlier flown in four female Humboldt penguins in an attempt to encourage three couples discovered to be all male to reproduce.

The zoo originally defended the experiment, claiming that the birds were an endangered species, but following protests from gay rights groups, director Heike Kueck has said that the zoo is abandoning the plan.

She said: "Everyone can live here as they please."

Kueck said that it was neither her intention nor possible to separate the gay couples by force and interest them in their new female companions.

She added that the penguins had shown little interest in their new female companions but said that the programme could have been started too late in the year.

Gay groups had earlier protested against "the organised and forced harassment through female seductresses" in an open letter to Bremerhaven's Mayor Joerg Schulz.

Edited February 17, 2005 by Phil Meloy

[RDK]

http://www.gaypenguinforamerica.com/bio.html