Polar bear cub in human handling row

Berlin Zoo’s abandoned polar bear cub Knut looks cute, cuddly and has become a front-page media darling, but an animal rights activist insisted today he would have been better off dead than raised by humans.

“Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws,” animal rights activist Frank Albrecht was quoted as saying by the mass-circulation Bild daily, which has featured regular photo spreads tracking fuzzy Knut’s frolicking.