Over the weekend, there was an incident at the Cincinnati Zoo that resulted in the death of an endangered animal. This is not the first time that a beautiful animal has been killed because of the carelessness of the human race, and sadly, it won't be the last. When will we as humans realize that these animals aren't meant to be locked up in tanks and cages for our entertainment?
On May 28, 2016 a family went to the zoo to gawk at the animals. While at the gorilla enclosure a little boy was begging his mom to climb into the habitat and play. His mother had several other kids with her, so she just said no and tended to her other children. Because of her lack of attention, the little boy crawled into the habitat where the endangered silver back gorilla Harambe lived and fell into the moat in his enclosure. Someone seeing the boy fall into Harambe's space screamed causing a commotion and also letting Harambe know that there was danger. He spotted the boy, walked over to him, stood above him in order to protect him.
As clearly seen in these photos, Harambe noticed the little boy's distress and is trying to protect him, but because of the screams from the people watching, he begins to panic and drags the boy through the water. This boy was inside Harambe's enclosure for over 10 minutes before the authorities showed up and horrifically killed Harambe. The boy was "rescued" from the scene obviously scared and, with a few scrapes that were most likely sustained during the fall. This only proves that Harambe did not hurt the child and was simply trying to protect him from the screaming onlookers.
Why wasn't the mother paying closer attention to her son?
As soon as he was trying to climb over the barrier, why didn't she remove him from the scene?
Why didn't the authorities use a tranquilizer, rather than killing him?
Jerry Stones is the director of the Gladys Portal Zoo in Brownsville, Texas and raised Harambe since birth, and described him as a "Gentle Giant." When he was asked about the incident, he said, "An old man can cry, too. He was a special guy in my life. Harambe was my heart. It's like losing a member of the family. I raised him from a baby, he was a sweet, cute little guy. He grew up to be a pretty beautiful male. He was very intelligent. Very, very intelligent. His mind was going constantly. He was just such a sharp character." Reading Stones' description breaks my heart. The beautiful creature was nothing but sweet and intelligent but was destroyed by the carelessness of others.
There is a petition going around that if passed, will create a law that holds zoo visitors responsible for the well-being of endangered zoo animals. This petition already have over 54,000 signatures. By signing this, you could prevent other animals from being killed.
Hearing about Harambe's death is sad of course, but hopefully this is something we can learn from. These animals aren't meant to be locked in in zoos, cages and tanks for our entertainment, they belong out in the world where God intended. Who are we to deem an animal as our property and have it perform for us? All of these animals are worth so much more than the so-called "life" they live in captivity.
