Harambe was a 17-year-old western lowland gorilla born in Brownsville, Texas. For the first 15 years of his life, he lived at Gladys Porter Zoo in Texas. In 2014, he was moved to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden in Ohio. He was shot and killed by zoo officials when a three year old boy climbed into his enclosure this past May. The boy climbed a three foot fence and then proceeded to crawl through four feet of bushes before falling 15 feet into the enclosure. Harambe died one day after his 17th birthday.
When Harambe was killed, it was an extremely controversial topic in the news and online. The child's mother became the target of a lot of hate and criticism while she was defending the zoo's actions of killing the gorilla. Many people believed there could have been other actions taken that would not have killed Harambe. The zoo claims that the child was in danger so they took action. Whatever the case may be, the story is still getting attention, even three months later.
Although Harambe is physically dead, his memory lives on through internet memes. Memes are spread throughout the internet on any social media platform that people can get their hands on. People are ironically mourning his death with campaigns like "Justice For Harambe" and "Dicks Out For Harambe."
For some unexplained reason, Harambe's death has found a way to pop up in every situation. For example, the news.
The Olympics.
Kids are even going as far as changing street names on Google Maps to honor the late gorilla.
The killing of Harambe is getting attention from many celebrities who are expressing outrage towards the situation. Celebrities like Piers Morgan, Ricky Gervais, Brandon Wardell, Lisa Vanderpump, Ice T and Donald Trump all took to Twitter to put in their two cents.
Most recently with the popularity of Pokémon Go, someone created a petition to turn Harambe into a Pokémon. The petition reads, "Harambe deserves to live on forever in our hearts" and so far, it has tens of thousands of signatures. The creator of the petition says it will be delivered to Nintendo and the Pokémon Company. You can sign the petition here.
I can only imagine what is next to come for this meme. Right now, it is showing no signs of slowing down. Obviously, the death of Harambe meant a lot to people because it has been a hot, trending topic for three months so far and more to come for sure. Gone but never forgotten. Rest in peace, Harambe.
