Let me preface this by saying, I am not at all an uptight person. If you know me, I have the biggest sense of humor and I pretty much will laugh at anything. That isn’t the problem here, so please don’t write this off and roll your eyes because you think I’m just another person who doesn’t know how to take a joke.
What happened at the Cincinnati Zoo a few months ago was horrible. It seemed that most of the country agreed that it was a dark day as we all cried out in anger and sadness. It spanned out big questions as to if we should still even have zoo attractions anymore. “This never would have even happened if our society didn’t take animals and keep them in captivity.” This is not talking about the good part of many animal habitats that are trying to save animals from poachers, abuse and extinction. If that were the true purpose then why are we putting up giant exhibits for people to come and stare from afar?
It brought up questions against the mother and family of the boy who somehow managed to get through multiple barricades to reach the gorilla exhibit. “Why was the mother not watching her child?” At the time many of us were frankly just pissed off. I myself asked why she wasn’t watching her own child. But then many of us calmed down and we realized that it’s not that simple.
People were in a giant debate across the country, condemning both the mother and the zoo. “If the barricades were safe enough he would have never gotten back there.” “The mother needs to have child services investigate her.” We were all upset and it was for one reason – because of the loss of Harambe. Somehow in just a short time everyone turned from anger and grief to jokes and heckling.
At first some of them were harmless and funny because understandably people were just trying to make light of the situation. I caught myself laughing at a few tweets and memes here and there. But since then, it has honestly gotten completely out of control. The Cincinnati Zoo had to delete their Twitter account because people were harassing them so much, tweeting and DM’ing “jokes” and hate comments to them. Now all I ever see on my feeds anymore is stupid and tasteless jokes. I do not find it funny, and I know I am not alone in that.
At this point some of you are probably rolling your eyes, thinking I am an idiot, or maybe you didn’t even make it this far in reading. But I am asking you to remember what I first said, and to then think about this: Harambe was a living creature who had a family and who had friends, both human and not.
You all blame, hate and make fun of the staff at the Cincinnati Zoo for having to make the choice to put down Harambe. It’s not about whether they should have done it or not or what else they could have done, not anymore. We all know deep down that what happened had to happen; it was a very tough situation.
Now just for a minute, seriously think about the friends and family of Harambe. The other gorillas he shared his home with, the trainers and staff who have worked with him for years and years, and the customers of the zoo who loved to come and watch the amazing creature that he was. Think about it, seriously. The people who were his family, who raised him and took care of him, who loved him, had to sit there and knowingly watch as their loved one lost his life.
This might be hard for you to understand if you aren’t an animal person. But if you are anything like my mother who loves our dogs (probably more than my sisters and I) like they are her real children, you should understand this. Even if you don’t know that attachment or bond with one of your pets, then just think about the fact that a life and soul left this world.
Losing Harambe was not a good day for anyone. For his friends and family, for the young boy who fell in and for his own family, and for the world watching. I watched the video from that day of the little boy down there and I was terrified for him. It was not a good day at all. It wasn’t funny then, and I am truly confused why it’s funny to anyone now. I am not telling anyone what to do, I am simply asking that you really think about what you’re doing and saying when you joke about the death of another living creature -- about how it affects those around you and especially those who were close to the lost life. It is not a joke to them, so stop making it a joke to everyone else.
If you were directly affected by this incident, think about it – would you want to constantly be reminded and heckled of such a tragic event and day?
