Tragedy struck the normally pleasant Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden on Sunday May 29. A four-year-old boy somehow crawled through the many barriers put up around the Gorilla World exhibit and fell into the moat below, where he was discovered by the silverback gorilla Harambe. According to zoo staff and officials, Harambe proceeded to draw the small child around the moat and was doing physical harm. The zoo's Dangerous Animal Response Team was called into action, and after assessing the situation determined that, sadly, the only action that was acceptable was to shoot and kill the gorilla before he could kill the child.
This was a terrible loss to the zoo and the gorilla population worldwide, because silverback gorillas are currently endangered. After this incident, many people have appeared across all forms of social media demonizing the zoo and its staff for prioritizing the child's life over Harambe's. I am here to tell you that, while your thoughts and cares for the life of an endangered animal are definitely good things, it is unfair and wrong of you to call down such hate on a staff that was doing the best job they could in this situation.
As is the case in most tragic situations, what you see on the news and what the media spreads is not the whole story. I have noticed the media and news outlets putting out information that is true but incomplete, stirring the pot of hate that is gathering around this wonderful zoo and its staff and animals. For one, people are claiming that Harambe was not harming the child, but was only trying to protect him. Video has been shared of Harambe standing over the boy protectively, while social media users yell hate and protest at how horrible the zoo's staff is, how horrible the child's parents are, how gentle and protective Harambe was.
I hate to break it to you, but gorillas are not gentle, docile creatures. In a video shared by Twitter user Amber Soler, which was taken by her mom, you can see that Harambe was not merely standing over the boy calmly while zoo staff crept in to shoot him down; he was dragging the boy through the water. Yes, maybe the gorilla was trying to protect the kid in his own way, but the fact is that Harambe was a giant, 400-pound gorilla. These animals are many times stronger than an adult human and can inflict horrible damage on the most fit of people. Imagine what he could have done, even by accident, to a small four-year-old.
The zoo has reported that if they could have saved both the child and Harambe, they would have. However, they addressed the question of using a tranquilizer instead: according to trained zoo professionals (whose job is to take care of dangerous animals), using a tranquilizer would have only put the boy in more danger by agitating Harambe further. It's devastating and heartbreaking, but they concluded that shooting him was the only option offered to them.
Before you call me out for being heartless and uncaring, let me tell you something. I am an animal lover; anyone who knows me will tell you I would probably do absolutely anything to help an animal, no matter what species. I would spend all the time I could at zoos and aquariums and watching animals in the wild. And I've been to the Cincinnati Zoo many times; they are not a zoo that abuses their animals. The Cincinnati Zoo is known for raising awareness for countless species, teaching children and adults about wildlife conservation, promoting wild animal welfare, and raising animals who are ambassadors for their species here in the United States. They also focus on taking in hurt and endangered animals and rehabilitating them so they can live in the wild (they do this with manatees and rhinos, among other species), and they promote breeding among endangered species to help grow their numbers. These are not people who hate animals or want to see them killed or hurt. So make sure that you do your research before you call for the zoo to be closed or for the staff to be fired, or whatever other nonsense you think would suit the situation best. As awful as this was--and I am just as sad and angered by it as a lot of you—you have to understand that you don't know all the details and you aren't a trained professional. They did the best they could given the circumstances. I stand with the Cincinnati Zoo.
