Everyone knows what happened on Saturday, May 28 at the Cincinnati Zoo. A young boy somehow made his way into the gorilla enclosure and was "moved around" by the endangered silverback, Harambe. Eventually, zoo workers shot and killed the gorilla in order to prevent harm to the 4-year-old toddler.
People are raging about this. On all different levels and on all different sides. Some are calling for criminal charges to be pressed against the mother for neglect, saying she should have been paying more attention to her son instead of playing on her phone and that it's her fault that her son got in the enclosure. Others are blaming the zoo for not having sufficient methods to keep humans out of the enclosures and to keep the animals in. Some are crying out at the shooting of the endangered species, saying he should have been tranquilized or that he was not hurting the boy, but protecting him.
Here's the thing: Everyone is at fault.
The mom should have been paying more attention, the enclosure should have been better, and the zookeepers should have looked at other options for saving the boy.
Everyone was stuck in the middle in this situation, everyone had different options to choose from, and they were doing the best they could under pressure; as we all do most of the time in dire situations.
The mom was playing on her phone and relaxing because, "Hey, it's a zoo where parents bring their children all the time and nothing like this ever happens so it's OK if I take my eyes off him for a few minutes," and on the other end of the spectrum, "Hey, I should really pay more attention to my child because 1. we're in a public place, and 2. we're surrounded by wild animals that sometimes get agitated by large crowds and from being in captivity." The mom obviously was leaning more towards the first option, but think about how many times they may have stood in the very same spot and looked at the same animals. Sometimes parents let things slip, but that does not mean they are bad parents or should have criminal charges pressed against them.
The Cincinnati Zoo had the best enclosure they could have. If the safety standards of that enclosure were not up to par then that exhibit would not be open to the public. People are constantly demanding for the enclosures to be better, to not have something obstructing their view of the animal inside, or basically just being nitpicky about it. But somehow, some way, a small toddler found his way down into it. It didn't take him a few seconds and it didn't take him a few minutes. It took time for that little boy to work his way in there somehow. The zoo itself is not solely at fault for that happening because sometimes, kids do the darndest things.
As for the shooting of this animal? The zookeeper was just doing what was best, and probably what he was told to do. Yes, now the world has lost a beautiful creature who was endangered, but lots of lives might have been saved as well. It is always a tragedy when someone or something has to be killed for the sake of someone or something else, and it is always a terrible decision that has to be made by someone, but Harambe has been said to not be protecting the boy. Many experts are saying that while he was not being aggressive to the child, he was also not treating it as his own. If the silverback had been shot with a tranquilizer then he would have drowned in the water before keepers could get in and keep him out, the tranq itself could have taken too long to take effect and the situation could have escalated quickly and the child could have been severely hurt, or the passed out giant animal could have landed on top of the boy, easily crushing and drowning him. Zoos have a protocol for this type of thing, and I believe everything happened too fast for there to be any other option than the one that was ultimately chosen.
See what I mean? Bad things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people, good things happen to bad people, and good things happen to good people. Sometimes things happen that we cannot control, and sometimes things happen that we could have controlled if we had known something was about to happen. But that is the whole point; we don't know. Accidents happen all day every day, and we were lucky this wasn't any worse than it was. I'm sure this mother feels terrible about her actions of that day, I'm sure the designers of the enclosure are kicking themselves for not noticing a toddler-sized way inside, and I'm sure the zookeeper is in mourning for having to take the life of an animal that he probably cared for himself many times before.
Everyone can be blamed for this accident, or no one at all. Neglect happens every day, and only sometimes it does lead to a situation like this and only then is it addressed. Accidents happen, and we all just need to be thankful it wasn't any worse and pray that nothing like it ever happens again because of lessons learned.
