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Originally posted by alva
He got hate mail, threatening they would kill him.
He got hate mail, threatening they would kill him.
Knut Receives Anonymous Death Threat
Knut, the world's best-known polar bear cub, is paying the price of fame. An anonymous animal-hater has faxed a death threat against him to Berlin Zoo. Police don't think it's serious but the zoo has increased the number of Knut bodyguards.
Knut has faced more than his fair share of troubles in his young life.
Berlin Zoo is on heightened alert after receiving a death threat against celebrity polar bear cub Knut that prompted zoo officials to contact the police.
An anonymous threat was sent to the zoo on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Berlin police department said. "A fax was received, we sent officers to the zoo but decided that it wasn't a serious threat," a spokesman said. "We're not undertaking any security measures."
The zoo could not immediately be reached for comment.
Germany's biggest-selling newspaper Bild Zeitung reported that the hand-written fax contained only five chilling words: "KNUT IS DEAD! THURSDAY NOON."
The newspaper said the zoo had trebled Knut's private security detail to 15 bodyguards. On Wednesday, one of them hid behind a rock with a walkie-talkie and scrutinized visitors who had come to see Knut walk around his enclosure.
Even though the police are not taking the threat seriously and shall not be assigning him special protection, Thursday promises to be a tense day for the zoo. Knut's two daily appearances have not been cancelled.
He's only five months old but little Knut has already faced more than his fair share of trials. He was rejected by his mother at birth and had to spend his first weeks in an incubator, only to be dismissed as not worthy of life by some animal experts sceptical about hand-rearing bears.
Then came the stress of celebrity, with incessant newspaper coverage and hundreds of thousands of jostling visitorspouring into the zoo to see him and constantly calling "Knuuut!"
At one point some media even blamed him for the lonely death of the zoo's Panda Yan Yan,although the suggestion that she died because she was stressed by the attention surrounding Knut was quickly denied by the zoo.
Knut's closest friend, zookeeper Thomas Dörflein, who has cared for him around the clock and fed him porridge, admitted in a newspaper interview that he occasionally got so infuriated with the cub that he could sometimes "hurl him against the wall."
To cap it all, Knut suffered teething pain and a fever this week and only just managed to stop vets putting a thermometer in his bottom. And now the threat of some crazed animal-hater hangs over the unwitting cub.
Knut, the world's best-known polar bear cub, is paying the price of fame. An anonymous animal-hater has faxed a death threat against him to Berlin Zoo. Police don't think it's serious but the zoo has increased the number of Knut bodyguards.
Knut has faced more than his fair share of troubles in his young life.
Berlin Zoo is on heightened alert after receiving a death threat against celebrity polar bear cub Knut that prompted zoo officials to contact the police.
An anonymous threat was sent to the zoo on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Berlin police department said. "A fax was received, we sent officers to the zoo but decided that it wasn't a serious threat," a spokesman said. "We're not undertaking any security measures."
The zoo could not immediately be reached for comment.
Germany's biggest-selling newspaper Bild Zeitung reported that the hand-written fax contained only five chilling words: "KNUT IS DEAD! THURSDAY NOON."
The newspaper said the zoo had trebled Knut's private security detail to 15 bodyguards. On Wednesday, one of them hid behind a rock with a walkie-talkie and scrutinized visitors who had come to see Knut walk around his enclosure.
Even though the police are not taking the threat seriously and shall not be assigning him special protection, Thursday promises to be a tense day for the zoo. Knut's two daily appearances have not been cancelled.
He's only five months old but little Knut has already faced more than his fair share of trials. He was rejected by his mother at birth and had to spend his first weeks in an incubator, only to be dismissed as not worthy of life by some animal experts sceptical about hand-rearing bears.
Then came the stress of celebrity, with incessant newspaper coverage and hundreds of thousands of jostling visitorspouring into the zoo to see him and constantly calling "Knuuut!"
At one point some media even blamed him for the lonely death of the zoo's Panda Yan Yan,although the suggestion that she died because she was stressed by the attention surrounding Knut was quickly denied by the zoo.
Knut's closest friend, zookeeper Thomas Dörflein, who has cared for him around the clock and fed him porridge, admitted in a newspaper interview that he occasionally got so infuriated with the cub that he could sometimes "hurl him against the wall."
To cap it all, Knut suffered teething pain and a fever this week and only just managed to stop vets putting a thermometer in his bottom. And now the threat of some crazed animal-hater hangs over the unwitting cub.
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