Rare Silverback Gorilla shot at Cincinnati Zoo, after child falls into enclosure

a reply to: gypsycat

I really want to vent on this topic. Let's kill an endangered species to save a non endangered species (mankind)

The mom is an idiot and should have several charges against her including child endangerment seeing she obviously wasn't watching her own kid at a zoo where the kid could easily vanish.

If it were me I would of sent her in to get her dumb kid back and let nature sort itself out. Then the kid ends up with minor injuries. I'll bet she sues because her kid found a way in, in turn I hope for a counter suit for being wreckless and stupid.

Sad and senseless incident.

Were the parents guilty as it seems, time will show. As mentioned by someone at the zoo when commenting on this said it was an "open exhibit". For sure it should not be, since a child, as seen, can very well crawl into the area and fall in. The mother of the child claims her son quickly vanished from her sight. People said that they heard her calling for him. As well as,

“I tried to prevent it, I tried to grab him and I just couldn’t get to him fast enough,” said Nicely, who was standing next to the boy’s mother.

The Fairborn woman said after the boy was in the enclosure, the gorilla Harambe was “pulling him around almost as if it was his own.”

Source-WHIO

Not so sure about that, running with the child, dragging him, is pretty dangerous. Harambe was obviously very confused by the situation also due to the shouting going on, etc. The confusion alone could have a wild animal act out if not instinctual-something invading it's territory that it's unfamiliar with.

Not saying I fully agree with the zookeepers decision, but there was tight space to act. There are so many factors and consequences here, namely the safety of the child. Not even to mention with a lawsuit, if the child had been killed by the gorilla, it would surely have shut down the zoo.

“I raised him from a baby, he was a sweet cute little guy,” Stones recalled. “He grew up to be a pretty, beautiful male. He was very intelligent. Very, very intelligent,” Stones reiterated. "His mind was going constantly. He was just such a sharp character."

Silverback gorillas, who can live up to 60 years in captivity, tend to be "gentle giants," Stones said, but that there's no way of predicting whether the unexpected presence of the boy in his cage would have triggered an aggressive response.

-Stones who raised Harambe -Source-NYDailyNews


One update is that the police said prosecutors could indict the parents. IMO the zoo needs to correct their open exhibit area issue and be held accountable as well with that.

a reply to: dreamingawake

I love your well reasoned take on this, the whole thing just hurts my heart

I was heart broken too but I ask myself, how easy was it for this child to climb on the railing then slip through? The planning and construction around these enclosures needs to be assessed, they aren't child-proof, obviously.

If you look at this event objectively, only one party can be blamed for what happened: the parent of the child.

People wanting to blame the Zoo because the barricades didn't prevent a kid from entering the gorilla's enclosure are kidding themselves if they think there will ever be a 100% fail-proof method to prevent this kind of thing from happening. 1 incident in 38 years suggests this was a human error. How many children under 5 have, accompanied by their parents, visited this enclosure over the past 38 years without incident? Think about that.

People wanting to blame the Zoo because they decided to shoot the gorilla don't take into account that the very real danger the child was in. Yes, it didn't seem like the gorilla was trying to harm the child, but at that size and strength it would not take much to kill the child in under 5 seconds.

Realistically, this was a case of human error. Since the human responsible for the error was only 3-4, responsibility then falls on the parent/guardian.

Natural selection did in fact take its course. Humans once again assert their dominance over the animal world. It's a cruel statement, the truth nonetheless.

This is an unfortunate situation. But that's all it is. The authorities reacted in the best way given the scenario.

Under no circumstance should a child be sacrificed for the life of an animal. Save that for the Bohemian Grove crowd.

This should be a lesson in making zoos obsolete.

a reply to: Dark Ghost

although I agree that someone should have been watching this child more closely, I also think that it's a reasonable expectation to believe that the zoos would do their best to prevent young children from wandering into the area to get closer to the animals. and when someone takes a wild animal out of their natural environment, who adopts one that has been, then one takes responsibility for that animal, to protect it, even from it's own natural insticts.
who knows maybe the parent did their best to watch over the kid. I remember as a child I managed to wander away from my parents quite a few times without even trying while in crowds. And I remember as a parent losing my child in crowds briefly a few times.
and who knows, maybe the zoo did all they could to make their zoo safe, but sometimes crap just happens. heck who knows, maybe peta was there the night before and was trying to free the poor gorillas and let them lose in the city in a moment of insanity and had to abandon their effort for some reason.

it's a sad story though, but, I'm afraid the only sure way to prevent such things from happening 100% would be to just give the animals their space, out in the wild, to live their lives the way they should be lived.

we have a small little zoo in my city, a joke really it's so small. my son has told me that they've had ads on the radio requesting businesses to donate their services so that it can be fixed up and prepared for their inspection. I can't help but wonder just how bad it is that they have to put out radio ads asking for businesses to donate like that.

a zoo is a prison in which every inmate is serving a life sentence for having committed no crime.

r.i.p. Harambe

a reply to: CheckPointCharlie

BOO.

Next time around the gorillas will have the guns.

originally posted by: Restricted
a reply to: CheckPointCharlie

BOO.

Next time around the gorillas will have the guns.

According to Planet of the Apes

In theory I don’t believe in keeping pets and though love the Bronx zoo, again, have a deep aversion about the concept of corralling animals so humans can gawk at them--in a zoo.


If human beings want to get close to wild animals let them risk going out in the wild on their own, but of course even then human beings would likely torture the animals in some way just for them to get some thrills


Brings us to this sad event of the most dangerous animal in the universe, mankind, exhibiting his selfish stupidity and an innocent animal has to suffer.

Of course the kid should have been saved but the mother should be prosecuted, unless the setup of this zoo wasn't here fault, something we don't know yet.

In lieu of the fact we don’t know the setup of that zoo until we do I would hold the mother responsible and or the zoo.


The problem is that animals are virtual slaves of human beings so in the eyes of the law there is no victim here

originally posted by: RoScoLaz5
a zoo is a prison in which every inmate is serving a life sentence for having committed no crime.

r.i.p. Harambe

I absolutely agree with you.
That's all there is to be said about it.

a reply to: Domo1

is this link the video of the gorilla?

I'm thinking small children should be tethered to an adult when visiting a zoo. If zoos won't require it, parents should do it own their own. It would protect the child and the animals.

This was tragic, but what choice did they have? Although the animal didn't seem to be injuring the child, that could have changed in a split second.

Very tragic, preventable, never should have happened. Heartbreaking.

Very sad. The zoo did what they had to do. I'm not sure how something like this can even happen as you expect to enter a well thought out environment that protects the animals and the visitors. Then a child darts over a railing, a very important animal is dead, and now everyone is pointing fingers. They had to shoot that gorilla and that's all I can say.

Personally, I'd rather not have zoos than have zoos which would have prevented a lot of zoo accidents from happening. The only thing zoos facilitate well is captive breeding programs. I know some of the more research oriented zoos have been important in the assistance of maintaining populations of endangered species in the wild.

Our dysfunctional American news media keeps interviewing Animal experts to get their thoughts, but never interview parents, to see what we think.

If it was my son who crawled, or squirmed his way into an animal habitat, I'd say shoot the animal as fast as possible! Wouldn't matter if it was a Gorilla, Coyote, Rhino, Lion...whatever.

By the way, would people be just as upset if it was a rare breed of a Lion that was shot, instead of a rare breed of Gorilla? This goes back to the thread I started a few months ago asking why people freak out over certain killings, but are "OK" with others. It's weird.

originally posted by: dawnstar
although I agree that someone should have been watching this child more closely, I also think that it's a reasonable expectation to believe that the zoos would do their best to prevent young children from wandering into the area to get closer to the animals. and when someone takes a wild animal out of their natural environment, who adopts one that has been, then one takes responsibility for that animal, to protect it, even from it's own natural insticts.

The Zoo's measures seemed to have worked for 38 years, no prior similar incident to speak of. Surely that is a critical factor to consider if one is to question whether a safe environment has been implemented by the Zoo?

The "no animal should have been held captive in the zoo in the first place" is not relevant, or is about as relevant as saying "if the family didn't visit the Zoo in the first place this would not have happened".

who knows maybe the parent did their best to watch over the kid. I remember as a child I managed to wander away from my parents quite a few times without even trying while in crowds. And I remember as a parent losing my child in crowds briefly a few times.
and who knows, maybe the zoo did all they could to make their zoo safe, but sometimes crap just happens. heck who knows, maybe peta was there the night before and was trying to free the poor gorillas and let them lose in the city in a moment of insanity and had to abandon their effort for some reason.

I agree that it is unreasonable to expect a parent to have eyes on their child 24/7 — it is also not possible. However, there are times when you need to be extra vigilant when it comes to supervising your child — when crossing the road, when boarding a train, or when out in a public area where other people and animals are visiting. Remember, we are not talking about a 8-10 year old kid, but rather a 3-4 year old. BIG difference in terms of self-awareness and capacity to understand danger.

it's a sad story though, but, I'm afraid the only sure way to prevent such things from happening 100% would be to just give the animals their space, out in the wild, to live their lives the way they should be lived.

Addressed this before, please see my second paragraph response.

And the Parents who idiotically failed to watch their Child, one parent whom of which has a lengthy drug trafficking history. Perhaps they were just too high that day..

www.dailymail.co.uk... emerges-father-lengthy-criminal-history.html

a reply to: gypsycat

This story is heartbreaking - it stayed with me all weekend

I think it was a perfect storm of incidents and accidents - sometimes in life things happen and we want for there to be someone to blame

3 year old...a parent that wasn't watching for only a moment - and a weak spot in the enclosure

The zoo could have done better, the parent could have done better - but you know, sometimes in life there are tragedies and no justice. It could have happened to anybody - probably

The gorilla was shot because they couldn't take a chance and they had no time

I hate zoos

The Cincinnati Zoo Director says, in hindsight, that he would make the same quick decision to have the Gorilla shot.


Source: abcnews.go.com...

I agree. How is a Gorilla more sacred than any other non-human life? Hopefully parents will pay closer attention to their children in all aspects of their young lives. I bet more are snatched off the street in their own neighborhood, than are hurt at zoos, theme parks, etc..