Going to the zoo can be an exciting adventure for children and their families. You get to see your favorite animals up close and personal: the giraffe that towers above the trees, the mighty king of the jungle, the lion, snoozing in the sun, or even catch some waddling penguins, all without having to venture into their natural habitats.
On Saturday, May 28, 2016, however, families visiting the Cincinnati Zoo got a much more shocking show than anyone could have possibly imagined. A 4-year-old boy crawled through the barrier and fell into a moat surrounding the gorilla center, where he continued to walk and splash around.
He was eventually met by Harambe, the zoo's 400-pound Western Lowland Gorilla. Zoo Director Thane Maynard said that in the zoo's 38 years of operation, nobody has ever gotten into the enclosure. Naturally, the gorilla was curious, and maybe even confused or scared, so he went over to check on the intruder.
Now, I understand that seeing a 400-pound gorilla saunter up to your small child can be terrifying in its own right, especially when he starts touching him and dragging him around the moat. However, what happened next, I don't think was the best decision.
After the zoo authorities were made aware of the situation, they had to act quickly. Unfortunately, they decided that tranquilizing the gorilla would have taken too long, and they decided to kill it instead.
If the child would have seemed like he was in terrible danger, then yeah. Maybe killing Harambe would have been necessary. I honestly think he was just trying to protect him. I'm sure it was scary watching him get dragged around, but he could have just been carrying him away from what he felt was the harm of all of the spectators making a lot of noise. The more noise they made, the further away he dragged the child, and when he stopped him from escaping, he was probably just making sure the child was unable to move toward the perceived danger. I think tranquilizing him would have sufficed.
Why am I so upset about this? First of all, I love animals, and I don't ever like hearing about them getting killed. What makes this incident even worse is that Western Lowland Gorillas are endangered and have declined by 20 percent in the past 25 years. Now there's one less gorilla around to help father more gorillas. I think that if the gorilla wanted to kill the child, he would have done it immediately. Since the boy wasn't killed, I don't think the gorilla should have been either.
Second of all, I think that the boy's parents should have been watching him. According to a witness, the boy had repeatedly made comments about wanting to go into the water. Children are very determined, and when you first hear your child say they want to do something dangerous like that, you make sure you do everything in your power to stop them. How hard is it to take notice that, oh, he seems like he's a little too close, maybe I should hold his hand and make sure that he stays at a safe distance so he doesn't actually go in? It's not like he didn't warn you of his plans — you should have made certain that he wasn't able to follow through.
I understand that the parents and authorities were scared and had to do what they felt was best to protect the child. I just don't think that this was the best decision. Just to think that if the parents would have paid more attention to their kid the gorilla would still be alive makes me sick. I think it's time we start paying more attention to our surroundings. Rest in peace Harambe, I'm so sorry.
