A news story that has swept our global nation is one that is seen as a tragedy, but in my opinion, for all the wrong reasons. While many people view it as a tragedy because a little boy got hurt and could have been seriously injured, I see it as one in the fact that a member of an endangered species, a gorilla named Harambe, was shot and killed because of negligent parenting.
Now, the term, “negligent” has come up in this topic, but it usually gets shot down by people who say “Parents can’t always keep their eyes on the kid. I sympathize with the parents for not being as attentive as they should have been.” I am not a parent by any means, but this was not a split-second accident. The child deliberately climbed into a wild animal's enclosure by going under a fence and through bushes. Now, this was not just a mother and her son at the zoo. What many people ignore is the fact that the father was also there. So, it is not just a matter of one parent being incapable of watching their child, it’s two. And to me, that is a huge problem. I was not personally there to know what the parents were doing at the time, but based on today's socially acceptable standards, it was probably due to cellphone use. How could two parents be more engrossed in technology than their own kids? Especially knowing that it is an environment where wild animals live, you would think that all attention would be on the child.
After the child had fallen in and the parents finally woke up and realized that their child was in the gorilla enclosure, a video was released. The mother is frantically screaming “Mommy is here! Mommy loves you!” This enraged me even more than the mother not watching her kid. If mommy was there, the child definitely would have not fallen into the enclosure. Another thing that people seem to be more focused on is the "what could have happened" mindset, not what actually happened. Society is more concerned that the child could have been killed or more seriously injured, rather than the real issue that had occurred. The child suffered a concussion and a few scrapes, which definitely were not caused by the interaction with Harambe. In my opinion, this entire situation could have been avoided had the parents been paying attention to their beloved child. Not to mention that you also have to question how good of parenting skills do these people have if they allow their child to just do whatever he wants.
After the ordeal was said and done and the child had been rescued, the mother released a statement on Facebook. It entailed how happy that she was that her son was safe, that she thanks god that nothing worse had happened, and she was thankful that the situation was handled properly. There was nothing that apologized for her negligence that caused Harambe to be fatally shot. If it were me who were in the situation, I would be apologizing left and right for my actions- or in this case the negligence of my actions. So no, I do not find sympathy in the parents. I do not take sympathy on the situation, anything other than the fact that a gorilla was killed. Personally, I strongly believe that these parents should be responsible for the killing of an endangered animal.
Some justice needs to come out of the situation, and the only innocent party is Harambe who is already dead unfortunately. If nothing else comes out of this, I hope that it is a lesson to everyone to be more attentive and aware of what your children are up to, regardless of the situation. I hope that my generation can break the stigma that has come from this when it is time for us to be parents and for the parents already out there, please be more watchful of your child. Just because your child may be young or may be an “unstoppable force of a child” is really no excuse to allow things like this to happen. Losing sight of your child in a grocery store is much different than what happened at the Cincinnati Zoo, and the two really cannot be compared.
I really hope that the gentile giant Harambe is resting in the sweetest peace up in animal heaven, and that a situation like this never occurs again. It is on us to help protect animals who are voiceless, and only we can stop them from inevitable harm if they are in our care.
