Harambe
I’m upset this morning because of something that happened at the Cincinnati Zoo yesterday.
After a 4-year-old boy slipped into the gorilla enclosure on a crowded day at the Cincinnati Zoo, a security team killed the gorilla to save the child.
The zoo said in a statement that the boy “fell into the exhibit’s moat.” A male Western Lowland gorilla was in the yard with the child – and “the Zoo’s Dangerous Animal Response Team responded to the life-threatening situation and made the difficult decision to dispatch the gorilla (Harambe).”
Harambe was agitated and aggressive and injuring the child, so the zoo had no real choice. But it makes me livid and sad. The adults who let the child fall into the moat got that gorilla killed.
His family will miss him.
In 1986 a five-year-old boy fell into the gorilla exhibit at Jersey Zoo. That outcome was better.
Very sad indeed, you’d think a zoo would have a high dose tranquilliser gun within easy reach. Or was there not enough time for a sedative to kick in?
Quite frankly I’m amazed some ‘good guy with a gun’ in the crowd didn’t mow down the entire Gorilla family.
I remembered the case where the gorilla helped the child.
*sigh* I get what happened when a man recently tried suicide by lion. He broke every rule wanting to get killed. That’s not something one generally feels the need to guard against. But kids getting in? Where were the adults? How do they not know they are supposed to teach the child safety and manners?
Yes, there wasn’t enough time for the tranq to work.
David: If you had read the linked story, you would have seen that using a tranquiliser gun was considered, but deemed too risky.
Even angrier… One does not “slip into” a gorilla enclosure!!! One gets there by stupidity!
Yes, Tracy, but kids that age need an adult to do the thinking for them. It’s them I’m upset with. Kids that age don’t know which animals are safe to play with and which ones aren’t.
Otoh, I really don’t understand– was there no one at the zoo the gorilla trusted enough, that they could go down and ask for the child? He seemed to be trying to protect the kid from the agitated crowd, rather than being aggressive.
I haven’t watched the video, can’t bear to.
But, of course he trusted his keepers. But keepers don’t go in with gorillas (except at John Aspinall’s zoos, and that’s controversial). If they had time I’m sure they tried to call all the gorillas inside, but it doesn’t sound as if they did have time, and there’s no guarantee they’ll obey anyway.
I’ve been upset all day thinking about the keepers.
Unfortunately, some parents don’t seem to be qualified to do the thinking for their children.
I can remember a video of a crocodile-infested river in Northern Australia, there were signs warning about the extreme danger of standing on the bank or wading into the water. The park rangers noticed a monumentally stupid father standing at the water’s edge and dipping his child’s feet into the water. The father or the child could have easily become a meal for a 3/4 tonne croc, it would have been the animal’s fault of course.
I’m a little surprised the Zoo has a “Dangerous Animal Response Team” with guns at the ready. We never had that.
It makes me think of life of Pi where Pi’s zookeeper father makes him and his brother watch a tiger eat a goat so that they understand how dangerous the zoo animals can be.
Sad that such a magnificent animal had to be put down.
Where were the parents when the kid climbed down into the enclosure? MOst people with four year olds keep a close eye on ’em.