Homosexual penguin 'cure' defended

The director of a German zoo has been forced to defend 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 Kuuck said yesterday that she had been inundated with criticism by the gay lobby after making public her plan at the weekend.

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

Gay activists from as far afield as Australia have been protesting at the zoo's attempts to "cure" the penguins of their homosexuality. But Kuuck said: "What we don't know is whether our three male couples are in fact homosexual, or whether they've only got together because of a dearth of females.

"We have no intention of separating same-sex couples by force. In any case, I would not know how that could work."