An endangered animal. A human child. An uproar of massive proportions.
If you haven’t heard what’s going on, a 4-year-old boy climbed over railings and fell into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. Two of the gorillas were called back, but the male gorilla, Harambe, went over to the child. Eye witness accounts will differ from person to person, but it appeared that the gorilla tried to shield the child from yelling people, and began dragging the child around his enclosure, through the water, and his behavior began to escalate. The zoo employees, fearing for the life of the child, decided shoot the gorilla, saving the boy’s life. Seems simple, right?
People are throwing blame and hate left and right. We need someone to blame. We have to have someone to blame.
Some blame the parents. A petition even started on change.org to hold the parents at fault, which has almost 500,000 signatures. Many make passionate statements such as these:
"How could you lose track of your child? How did you not know your child was by your side until you saw him fall into the gorilla enclosure? Why were you not holding his hand? Were you not paying attention? Why are you such a bad parent? You were probably updating your Facebook status or taking a selfie. You should have to pay for the gorilla’s death! Let’s hold you responsible for the death of this endangered creature because you couldn’t pay attention to your child. Why are such stupid people allowed to be parents? Keep your brats in check."
Some blame the zoo:
"Their enclosure obviously wasn’t good enough. If a four year old could get through it, who else could get through? And furthermore, couldn’t you have just tranquilized the animal? He’s an endangered species, you could have found some alternative method of stopping him. This is why animals shouldn’t be in captivity! Murder!"
Then there’s the people throwing shade at those throwing shade:
"Is a human life worth more than a gorilla life? I’m glad the child is okay and that the zoo took the correct measures to keep the child safe. Get out of here you tree huggers!"
Then there's the zoo, not sure what to say, though supported by many, caught somewhere in the middle:
"We couldn’t have tranquilized him, it just would have agitated him more. The tranquilizer would not have kicked in for another several minutes, and by that time the child would have surely been dead. We did what we had to do and we would do that again."
Lastly, we hear the voices of the boy's parents:
"We are thankful to the zoo for saving our son, taking what steps they had to, and by God’s grace he’s still alive. We don’t want any money, instead donate it to the zoo in Harambe’s name."
For a while, I will admit, I was in an uproar as well, placing the entirety of the blame on the zoo, then the parents, but then I saw another comment in passing that caused me to rethink:
"Less Blame, More Empathy."
Sure, there is a little bit of blame.
The mom could have watched her son more intentionally, keeping a closer watch on her small child, holding his hand. She was distracted.
The zoo was stuck between a gorilla and a hard place. They had this beautiful creature, whom they cared for very much. In that moment, seeing that gorilla dragging the child across his enclosure, they had to make a decision in a brief instant, and they chose to kill the gorilla.
The truth resists simplicity.
I don’t think there was a right answer, nor is there any one person or institution we can blame for this tragic event.
Parents are humans, and humans get distracted. In our current day and age, it’s most likely our phones and technology that distract–at home, in the car, out in public. Parents are distracted every day and kids get away with stuff, from hitting his or her brother to coloring on the wall. This mother was distracted for a few moments and couldn’t find her child in the crowd; suddenly her son was in the exhibit with the gorillas—he got away with something all right! Her mistake, because of its location, is broadcast to the world and everyone openly announces opinions on her parenting technique—cause everyone else is the model of the perfect parent at every single moment of the day, right?
What if the zoo had not killed the gorilla? Instead, perhaps, they shoot a tranquilizer at it and watch as the situation unfolds. From reports, the gorilla was getting more agitated, and would have been more agitated by the tranquilizer. My guess is, if the tranquilizer had agitated the gorilla more, his behavior would have escalated more and the child would have been seriously injured if not killed. Then, instead of animal rights protestors outside their gates, human rights activists outside the zoo, the zoo would most likely be sued by the parents for not saving their child.
There was no absolute right decision in this situation. Either flip of the coin, someone dies. An endangered animal, or a human child.
It’s easy for us to throw stones and place the blame on one party or the other. It's easy to try and consider alternative actions or scenarios, but at the end of the day, a child climbed in, a gorilla got killed.
It’s so much easier to place blame from the outside of a situation.
Enter the scene with me for a minute. Think how terrified this mother must have been, seeing her son being pulled around by a wild animal because for a moment, she possibly stopped to check one email from work. It dragged on for minutes, and she called 911, terrified her son was going to die at the hands of this wild creature. I do not doubt she felt some modicum of guilt, having lost her child in the crowd. She was just another mother.
Imagine how hard the zoo workers's decision was, choosing between two lives, knowing either decision would bring hell fire upon them. How hard it must have been for those who have worked with this animal for years, fed him, cared for him, loved it and yet had to decide, in a panicky moment, ultimately, to take his life.
When we try to imagine the situation in it's complexity, we realize it isn’t as simple as pointing fingers at one person or the other. This situation calls for more than pointing fingers.
Placing blame is easy, empathizing is harder.
If you want to do some reading yourself, I've included a few of the many articles that I came across, and feel free to disagree with me, form your own opinion, read more articles, etc.
Vox.com's article, giving an overview of the situation and speaking to the mob justice mentality that has come out in the recent days against the zoo and the mother as a result of the incident.
CNN's overview of the whole affair.
Interview with Jack Hanna, explaining why the zoo made the right call.
