Recently, Cincinnati Zoo took the world by storm after a tragic event that involved a three-year-old boy falling into an open gorilla exhibit, home to the beloved Harambe. In an effort to save the boy from a potential attack from the 400-pound silverback gorilla, Harambe was shot and killed by zoo officials and the young boy walked away with non-life-threatening injuries. Since then, people all over the country have been lashing out against the Cincinnati Zoo, the bystanders, and the parents of the young boy. Yet one thing has rarely been noticed as the common denominator; which is that accidents happen.
For those of you angry with the Cincinnati Zoo for their decision to kill Harambe, I challenge you to think about the other ways this event could have played out. Unless you are an expert in tranquilizers, darts, and gorilla interaction, I suggest that you be careful what you say. I am no expert myself, but when I picture a gorilla, young boy, and a tranquilizer dart all in the same picture, all I see is gruesome.
First of all, if this gorilla was tranquilized, what is there to say that the gorilla would not become incredibly agitated and harm the boy, which was what we were all scared about in the first place? Second of all, say Harambe was tranquilized, they were in a moat full of water. The beast of an animal could have easily toppled over, drowned in the water, and crushed the boy underneath him leading to a similar demise for both the child and the gorilla.
Lastly, if no measures were taken, there is a small chance that the boy could have been rescued free from harm without harming Harambe either, but there is also a chance that the boy could have been violently attacked by the gorilla whose home was abruptly invaded by an unknown creature. Either way, the blame would be put on Cincinnati Zoo. We can argue that yes, there maybe should be an increased amount of security for this particular exhibit.
If a three-year-old can sneak into a gorilla habitat without his mother knowing, that could be a severe red flag. All in all, though, the Cincinnati Zoo had to take drastic measures and claim the life of their beloved friend Harambe, and some may not realize how heartbreaking that must have been for them. I agree that Harambe lived a series of unfortunate events being taken from the wild and spending a tragically short life in captivity, but put this fact aside for a moment and realize that the decision to execute Harambe was most likely not an easy one. Imagine a boy had fallen into a gorilla pit right in front of you, how would you react? Don't be so insensitive.
Which brings me to the bystander argument. "Why didn't more people try to stop him?" As humans, we have this moral theory that has been investigated involving the idea that "if I don't do it, someone else will." We avoid getting ourselves involved in situations because we are scared of the outcome. Some bystanders may have seen him and chosen to ignore it, thinking he wouldn't actually do it. Some may have seen it and wanted to see if he would actually make it in because they were noisy, but were hoping that someone would intervene at the last minute. There have been accounts of people who did actually try to stop the boy but couldn't make it there in time. For those who attempted to be heroes, I applaud you for your willingness to prevent the situation that happened.
For those of you who saw and did not react, I do not blame you for the outcome. As human beings, (and I can't stress this enough), mistakes happen, and accidents happen, and when an emergency strikes some of us do not work well under pressure. For those of you pointing fingers at the bystanders, put yourself in the situation and honestly think to yourself about how you would react. Would you crack under pressure? Would you have dove into the gorilla pit to save the child? People aren't perfect, and chances are, you aren't either. Don't be so insensitive.
If you are an expert parent, please raise your hand! If you have never lost your child even for a split second at the park, supermarket, or your own house, please stand up! Heck, I lose myself at the supermarket. My brain wanders and all of a sudden I end up completely lost and confused as to why I am in the organic section when you and I both know I'm a college student who can't afford any of it.
Regardless of the situation, we, as adults, make mistakes. Sometimes there is just too much going on and we can't handle it all. Before you go lashing out on the parents of the child who had fallen into Harambe's exhibit, take into consideration the kind of parent you are. If you are not a parent, take into consideration the kind of child you were. Calling these parents negligent is simply uncalled for. Leaving a child in a hot car- THAT is negligent. Mistakenly taking your eyes off of your child for ten seconds in an attempt to round up your other kids who are acting like wild animals at the zoo is not negligent. Do you honestly think that mother thought her child would actually climb into a GORILLA EXHIBIT while she turned her back for a minute? I think not.
Can you imagine the panic she must have felt as she watched her little boy being dragged around by a gorilla with strength ten times that of a human? Mistakes happen. Whoever decides to write the textbook on the step by step process of becoming a perfect parent in a perfect world, bless your heart. I'm still waiting for the day that I can take myself to Target to get one thing and not walk out with new curtains, a blender, and patio furniture. All jokes aside, our minds wander allowing more and more room for mistakes to be made. We are humans, things happen, mistakes happen. No one is perfect. Don't be so insensitive.
It is a shame that when tragedy strikes, we always have to put the blame on one another in order to justify the situation. Sometimes, situations can't be explained. There will never be a set-in-stone story of what happened on the day that the little boy wandered into the gorilla habitat, as there will not be a set-in-stone definition as to why it happened. We will never know if Harambe was protecting him or showing signs of agitation. We will never know why more people did not intervene. It was simply a tragic ending involving the loss of a beloved animal and a lucky rescue of an adventurous young boy.
All we can do is participate in the mourning and remembrance of Harambe and continue to give the family of their child privacy during this time as they recover from the traumatizing event that happened recently. All I ask is that we be careful as we point fingers at one another, and avoid being so insensitive to all sides of the story.
