As we all know already, the most talked about news last week was the instance about a gorilla and a 4-year-old boy who. And much to no one's surprise, everyone on Twitter and Facebook suddenly became experts on everything Gorilla, Zoology, and parenting related. A 4-year-old boy fell in to an enclosure with a 17-year-old male Gorilla, and people are outraged that the gorilla was killed. Only in 2016 would society be mad that an animal died instead of a child.
"Where were the little boy's parents?" "She's a horrible mother"
The boy's mother had four children with her, he was not her only child to look after. Ask your parents, or think about your own children, four kids are a lot to keep track of at once. Especially at a highly populated zoo where there are fascinating animals all around. People at the scene said they saw the boy running towards the fence and they tried to grab him, but he was too quick for even them. Yes, the mother could have kept a closer watch on her son, but accidents with kids that little happen. There's no reason to attack her parenting skills.
"The gorilla wasn't even being aggressive with the little boy"
Depending on what article you read there are two different 'expert' sides to this story; some experts say Harambe was showing aggressive behavior on the boy, some say he was not. The full video has not been released to the public, or at least I wasn't able to find it. But what you can see in the video is Harambe grabbing the child by his foot and running while dragging him through water and across cement. It was also reported that Harambe threw the boy 10 feet in the air before the child fell straight on his back. Would that be considered aggressive if Harambe was doing that to a baby gorilla? Maybe not, I'm not entirely sure. But this was a 40-50 pound human being; non-aggressive Gorilla behavior is going to be very, very aggressive and eventually fatal to someone that small.
"They should have just tranquilized the gorilla"
I'm going to be honest, I know nothing about gorillas. So I'm not going to pretend I do, but I did read several articles that said tranquilizing was considered; however, the effect would not kick in for several minutes because of Harambe's (gorilla) 450 pound frame. Imagine how angry Harambe would have became after being shot with a tranquilizer gun, and how much more aggressive he would have been with the child. Harambe either had to be fatally shot, or he was going to kill the little boy.
"Poor Harambe"
Poor Harambe?! Poor, child! The boy is, again, 4-years old. He was in one of the scariest positions a human could be in, and in all of the videos he remained extremely calm. Think about any 4-or-5-year-olds you know, it is not a calm age for a child. Poor child, who was being thrown and dragged by an animal 10 times his size. If you were the one who fell in to Harambe's enclosure, or it was someone you loved; your mom, your brother, your sister, your nephew; you can not honestly say you would rather watch them slowly get killed by Harambe then have the gorilla shot. Yes, it is sad that an amazing, endangered animal had to die, but thank God the little boy survived.
This is not the mother's fault at all, but the only thing that did cross my mind was 'why didn't the mother jump in to distract Harambe away from her son?'. I know that's what my mom would have done, and I know that's what I would have done for my niece or nephew (I don't have kids). But, she did have 3 other children with her, and I am not going to judge her parenting skills. This is not about her parenting skills, this is about a tragic incident that only had two possible outcomes. I for one, am glad it ended the way it did. May Harambe rest in peace, and my the little boy who was put through this experience make a full recover.
