It’s been a week since Harambe, a 17-year-old critically endangered Western lowland silverback gorilla, was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo when trying in order to save a 4-year-old boy who had fallen into the moat surrounding his enclosure.
The death of Harambe not only caused outrage on social media, it also infuriated animal rights activists who are now asking pertinent questions: Did the zoo make the right decision in killing the gorilla? Was a lethal shot the only option? Why didn’t the zoo officials tranquilize Harambe?
The unfortunate incident has ignited uproar the world over, with some criticizing the zoo’s decision to put down the gorilla instead of sedating, or drawing the animal away from the boy: and others blaming the boy’s mother for not supervising the child, which resulted in Harambe’s death.
If you leave your kid in a car you go to jail, if you let your kid fall into a Gorilla Enclosure u should too! #TeamDl
— DL Hughley (@RealDLHughley) May 30, 2016
Whether the zoo sues the parents because the gorilla ended up getting killed, or if the mother sues the Cincinnati Zoo for not making the gorilla compound secure enough, the latest footage suggests the child was NOT in danger. In fact, the gorilla was protecting, rather than threatening, the boy minutes before he was shot dead.
Eyewitnesses to the incident have also claimed the gorilla was showing no aggression towards the boy until the screams from the onlookers panicked Harambe, causing him to drag the boy across the water.
A similar incident happened in 1996, at the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois, when a 3-year-old boy slipped away from his mother and tumbled more than 15 feet into a pit holding several gorillas. Binti Jua, then an 8-year-old Western lowland silverback gorilla, scooped up the toddler and mothered him for several minutes, while toting her own 17-month-old baby on her back, before carrying him safely to paramedics. The 20 year old video also shows Binti Jua carrying the limp boy while zookeepers spray water from above to keep the other gorillas in the exhibit from interfering.
Same incident, same animal, but neither the gorilla nor the child died. The outcome could have been different at the Cincinnati Zoo too if only…
It seems that some gorillas make better parents than some people.
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) May 29, 2016
Ian Redmond, chairman of The Gorilla Organization, told CNN zookeepers had other options:
“When gorilla or other apes have things they shouldn’t have, keepers will negotiate with them, bring food, their favorite treats, pineapple or some kind of fruit that they don’t know and negotiate with them. I don’t know if that was tried or people thought there was too much danger but it does seem very unfortunate that a lethal shot was required.”
But former zookeeper Amanda O’Donoughue, who has worked with gorillas as a zookeeper in her 20s, defended Cincinnati Zoo’s controversial decision to shoot the gorilla as the only way to save the child. She attempted to explain why using a tranquilizer may not have been a good idea in a viral Facebook post, which is now deleted for reasons unknown:
“Harambe was most likely not going to separate himself from that child without seriously hurting him first (again due to mere size and strength, not malicious intent) Why didn’t they use treats? Well, they attempted to call them off exhibit (which animals hate), the females in the group came in, but Harambe did not. What better treat for a captive animal than a real live kid!
“They didn’t use Tranquilizers for a few reasons: A. Harambe would’ve taken too long to become immobilized, and could have really injured the child in the process as the drugs used may not work quickly enough depending on the stress of the situation and the dose. B. Harambe would’ve have drowned in the moat if immobilized in the water, and possibly fallen on the boy trapping him and drowning him as well.”
So after all the discussion I think we can all agree that zoo’s are not safe places for kids or animals. There you have it. #Harambe
— Holly Marie Combs (@H_Combs) June 1, 2016
As debate over the incident continued, Redmond insisted that Harambe could have lived. He wrote in The Guardian:
“Watching the shaky phone video, it is clear that the child was understandably frightened and the gorilla understandably stressed, but in the video shown on the news websites, Harambe did not attack the child. He pulled the child through the water of the moat, at one point held his hand – apparently gently, stood him up and examined his clothing.
“The video is two minutes and 34 seconds long, however, and we are told the incident lasted some 10 minutes. Clearly if a silverback wanted to kill a child, he could do so in an instant. But he didn’t. It would seem that the danger was more to do with whether the boy might bang his head on a rock while being dragged.”
This article (20 Year Old Video Shows Gorilla Save Toddler’s Life After He Fell into Chicago Zoo Enclosure) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.
the chicago gorilla was female with natural materal insticts , the other male extenly terrioral a huge difference . there was only one way
I understand your point but still that child posed not threat to that male gorilla. If he felt like that kid was a threat he would have killed him and not keep him close like he did.
gorilla’s are vegetarian, so no that child would not have been a “snack” fuck people are dumb and ignorant these days.
Humens are the most dangerous and the most violent in the mammel class ….. As zoo keepers supposedly trained and educated to care for and protect these wonderful intelligent cousins of ours iI’dlike to say this whole thing makes me sick . !!!!! The person or persons that made this decision should be fired and brought up on charges …… I hope they never have a good nights sleep ,,,,, god speed to this innocent animal may he rest in peace where humanscan no longer hurt him …..