A rare gorilla was shot and killed on Saturday, May 28th in The Cincinnati Zoo. According to a report by CNN, "A 3-year-old boy slipped into its enclosure," forcing the zookeepers to shoot the animal, Harambe, in order to protect the boy. By another report from WLWT-TV, a woman disclosed that she heard the little boy say he wanted to "Get in the water with the gorillas," and so he did not slip at all, but intentionally went into the exhibit. There is now a petition on change.org to get, "Justice for Harambe," with 481,807 online signatures to encourage child services to check in with the parents for signs of neglect toward their children. Regardless of the explanation for the event, this one gorilla's death has brought a long-standing issue into the public eye: animal ethics in zoo settings.

There is an ethical dilemma between the decision to not interfere with nature and let it run its course or to preserve some aspects of it and learn from close observation and research. Essentially, the decision to retain some animals in zoos in order to learn from them in order to help the majority or to leave animals completely alone so as to not interfere (Oxford Journals).

Unfortunately, humanity has had a significant impact on the environment and I'm not sure that we have any right whatsoever to innocently walk away from a situation that we have created. To demonstrate this, "Scientists estimate we’re now losing species at 1,000 to 10,000 times the background rate" (Oxford University Press). It's not a coincidence that extinction rates are mirroring those that existed with the dinosaurs and that humanity has suddenly burst onto the scene. Humanity is the modern meteorite to demolish thousands of species. However, I question if zoos are humanely researching the animals they are attempting to preserve.

Some endangered animals deserve additional protection. But do they deserve to be taken from their natural habits and forced into a poor imitation with climates that could never mock the same weather that they prosper in?

For example, tigers and lions have close to 18,000 less space in zoos than they do in the wild. Baby animals are widely desired and bring in a higher profit, but after they grow up, many of them are sold to circuses or private collectors who have few to no regulations. Many animals are given anti-depressants because they appear too sad in front of paying customers.

Even if some animals are endangered we have to ask ourselves what gives us the right to contain these animals and force them to breed.

Because we are a more abundant species, should we force less populous species to bend to our whims?

Because zoos can teach us some things about wild animals, do we have the right to poke at them in cages?

Does our educational benefit outweigh the possible happiness of animals in their own environment?

You have to answer these questions for yourself the next time your family decides to take a trip to the zoo.

Thank you Harambe, because even though you did not know it, your death allowed us to think about what we're doing.