I guess the answer is probably yes, but I just want to verify it.
I had never thought about it before, but my wife mentioned this morning that most of the time when a baby is born to a zoo animal, the baby is killed, because it can’t be released to the wild, but there is limited space in zoos for new animals.
Lioness has a cub? Killed.
Flamingo lays an egg? Tossed.
Etc.
So… (eyes brimming)… is this really true?
Probably not. Zoo animals are valuable. There is a website you should see.
No for the US, yes for Europe.
In the US, most animals are on birth control or sterilized or kept gender secluded until/unless they’re part of a breeding program. If they’re part of a breeding program, then their offspring may stay with them for a while or forever, or they may be removed from the Mama and hand raised by humans. They may be moved to another zoo who’s eager to expand their collection or as part of their breeding program.
In Europe, many (not sure if it’s most) zookeepers prefer to allow the animals to experience their normal reproductive cycles, including sex, pregnancy and birth, and then euthanize the offspring that they can’t keep.
I imagine this leads to some uncomfortable conversations at international zookeeping conferences.
Although zoos in the U.S. practice contraception for their animals, sad to say, some zoos in Europe do practice euthanasia on animals that are born in the zoo and don’t fit into their breeding plans.
If the NYT is to be believed, not in the US, at least.
Man, I don’t know what I think about this except that I want a tiger cub.
Male wolves at a nearby zoo have been given vascetomies instead of being neutered. Members of the pack have sex when the females go into heat, but no pregnancies occur.
Heh. Guess we know what online newspaper Dopers read, hmmm? 
Not that I would recommend it but you can buy them easily and they can be cheaper than a pure-bred dog. The food bills and cage requirements are a different story.
Right. Big cats breed like crazy in captivity. Anyone who wants can get as many tigers or lions as they want. Except everyone who wants a tiger and who has facilities for keeping a tiger already has as many tigers as they can handle and don’t want any more. Animal rescue groups are constantly trying to find homes for backyard big cats and constantly failing because if you’re the kind of idiot who wants a backyard tiger you’ve already got one.
I don’t want a tiger. I want a tiger cub. When it becomes a tiger, I no longer want it. Which is why I have no tiger cub.
The rescues are full partly because many people feel exactly as you do – but don’t have the self discipline to include or abide by your last sentence.
As was said upthread, US zoos control the breeding activities of their collections so unwanted offspring are extremely rare.
Don’t say that so loud, doper My Lord is going to be pissed at you…
They aren’t killed instantly as they are cute and cuddly and will draw people to the place. Instead the zoos wait until the tourist season is over.
To paraphrase Ogden Nash:
The trouble with a tiger cub is that
It eventually becomes a freaking enormous rip-your-face-off-with-one-swipe-of-its-beclawed-paw cat.
No way! Those eggs make great omelets.
Why don’t they just feed them to the other animals?
I guess it happens. A friend I used to have worked at the local zoo and he told me that for the staff Christmas dinner they slaughtered a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig from the children’s zoo. He claimed that it was much tastier than ordinary farm pig ham. I guess he wasn’t a particularly orthodox moslem.
This reminds me of a related question I’ve wondered about for a long time: What happens to the calves at dairy farms? As I understand it, cows only produce milk after they’ve had calves. That’s who the milk is intended for, after all. So what happens to the calf that was supposed to get the milk? Is it killed?
Diary farm calves are sold when they are a week or so old. My uncle bought at least two dozen over a 7 year period. We bottle feed them and later they fattened up in his pasture. He sold them at auction after they were a year old. A few he had butchered for the freezer.
iirc most of the calves he got were male. We turned them into steers when they were old enough. Steers are easier to raise and the meat is more tender.
Traditionally, that’s where veal comes from - an unwanted dairy calf.