If you are on social media frequently then you will notice that every week there seems to be some type of video or event going viral. For this week, it has been focused in on a gorilla, named Harambe, being killed at The Cincinnati Zoo in order to save a 3-year-old boy. There has been much controversy over this topic criticizing the ethical choices that were made. Every post that I’ve seen across social media only offers a portion of the whole story (like a video showing only the gorilla’s “violent” nature). After gathering together the whole story, it can be inferred that the right call might not have been made.

The boy fell 15 feet down into the water in the exhibition moat. At first, Harambe did not notice the child. It wasn’t until about two minutes later that the gorilla saw the boy splashing around in the water and went over to investigate. By now, the boy’s mother was on the phone with 911 (you can find a log of the event here).

When Harambe went over to the boy, people could see that Harambe did not intend to hurt him, instead he was only curious and playful. Many videos were recording the incident, but the one with the most attention has been this one:

When watching this video, everyone’s first thought was that the gorilla is being violent and dragging the child. Although it is true that the child was being dragged through the water, people are looking past everything positive happening from this video. The first being that in the beginning of the video (from 0:01-0:23), Harambe is clearly protecting the boy from the rowdy and large crowd of people. After the first drag, you will also notice Harambe helping the boy stand up and holding hands (0:32-1:01); this can be shown as a sign that Harambe had no intentions to hurt the boy.

In no video on the internet does it show Harambe hitting, biting or deliberately trying to injure the child. The dragging and tossing that Harambe displayed can most likely be interpreted as being curious and wanting to play. The problem with Harambe is that he weighs in at over 400 pounds, making being playful seem like violence. But luckily, after every drag or toss Harambe did, the boy was still conscious and uninjured, though Harambe was only getting more agitated by the crowd.

After the incident, the mother reports that the boy has been doing just fine. Unfortunately, that was not the case for Harambe; instead, he was shot and killed in order to rescue the boy.

After covering all the basic knowledge that most people know from this situation, there is one big piece being left out--a claim from a witness who saw the boy repeatedly telling his mother that he was going to climb the barrier and play in the water. If the mother knew her son's intentions ahead of time, it seems odd that she would let him out of her sight for even a second. As well as the witness, of course I cannot speak for them, but if I were a witness who overheard this child's plan I would be keeping an eye on them myself to see if this attempt was really going to be made. Surely, there had to be at least one person at least one time during the whole succeeded attempt that saw the boy climbing.

With Harambe dead, that also increases the endangerment on his species of gorilla. A human life matters very much and I agree that the child needed to be saved, though there are other ways to accomplish this that do not involve killing an animal whose habitat was invaded. Some people do overlook the worth on an animal’s life, whether it is a chicken, pig, cat, dog or gorilla. With this tragedy happening, it’s important to understand that life should be deserved for all, included the one’s who don’t get a say in theirs.