Many have heard about the shooting of 17-year-old Harambe the Gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo to save the life of a 3-year-old boy who had managed to climb into the exhibit. Many are outraged at the actions of the zoo, saying they should have simply tranquilized him. The zoo director, Thane Maynard released a statement saying the following :
"That child's life was in danger. People who question that don't understand you can't take a risk with a silverback gorilla -- this is a dangerous animal," he said. "Looking back, we'd make the same decision. The child is safe."
After watching the videos, you can see the gorilla dragging the young boy around. The gorilla at times seems to care for the boy and at others is just pulling him all over the enclosure. When Julia Gallucci, a primatologist for PETA weighed in, she stated that the gorilla was probably attempting to nurture the young boy.
She says, "Gorillas have shown that they can be protective of smaller living beings and react the same way any human would to a child in danger. Consider Binti Jua, the gorilla who carried a child to a zookeeper's gate," referring to an incident in 1996 where a female gorilla protected a child from other primates after the child had fallen into the exhibit at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.
Although it is terribly sad, I agree with the zoo in their decision. Tranquilizing held too many risks and the zoo had to act quickly. Tranquilizing would have been unpredictable and posed greater risk to the child. The zoo made a quick decision that although hurt the beautiful animal, in turn possibly saved the young boys life.
The bigger question here lies around the mother's care. Many Americans and animal rights activists are asking for the family of the young boy to be charged. Some activists even created a change.org petition to charge the family, which had gained 138,000 signatures by Monday morning. In my opinion, the mother should be charged with physical child negligence, as the child never should have gotten out of her care. It took more than a few seconds for the 3-year-old through the fence and over the edge of the moat wall. I also think it would be right to have the family reimburse the zoo for the death of Harambe.
It is incredibly sad that this happened at all. If you would like to read more on the incident, you can visit NBC or CNN.
