It was incredibly shocking to hear about the incident that happened at the Cincinnati Zoo last Saturday when a three-year-old boy slipped into a gorilla exhibit. The video that was released shows the gorilla dragging the little boy in the water and bringing the boy close to himself while the mother is heard screaming and reassuring her son in the background. The zoo had to put down the gorilla in order to bring the boy to safety.
This event blew up rapidly on social media where people were outraged by the death of the gorilla. They were also quick to blame the mother of the child with many spreading nasty comments and posts. A petition has already been started called, "Justice for Harambe," which people have been signing because they believe that the parents should be held criminally responsible.
Before you make a nasty post about the parents, think about it. It is one thing if the parents were dangling their child over the railing and choosing to not follow the zoo warning signs. It is also another thing if the parents were choosing to not look after their child, or were too preoccupied on their phones. However, it's different if the parents had their back turned, or were preoccupied for 10 seconds when the child slipped into the exhibit. Anyone who is a parent understands that children can easily get to point A to point B in a blink of an eye. They have all experienced that moment of fear when they turn their back on their child for one second to look back and find their child out of sight. This can happen to anyone. Put yourself in these parents' shoes and think about how terrified they must have been. Instead of signing that petition and making disgusting posts about these parents on social media, offer your support and pray that their family is well.
It is tragic that this gorilla had to die for something that was brought upon him in the moment. Many believe that the gorilla was trying to protect the child. When watching the video, it does seem that way because when the gorilla was hearing the screams he brought the child away from it and stood over him in a defensive manner. However, the child was still in incredible danger because the gorilla could have easily broken his bones, or hit his head when he was dragging the boy.
Protests have been made to show that the gorilla should not have been killed. When you think about it, their options were limited. The zookeepers could not just go into the exhibit and try to get the boy because the gorilla made it clear that the boy was not going to get away from him. Many posts have been made where people questioned why tranquilizers were not used. This would have been incredibly dangerous. Experts have pointed out that the tranquilizers do not have an instant effect and could cause even more destruction to the scene.The gorilla would have been extremely agitated from it, and would have acted out, thus seriously injuring or killing the boy. Sadly, the only thing they could really do was to kill the gorilla.
What people need to be doing now is showing support to the family and hoping that the child is well. It is important that we follow the safety precautions in zoos and that parents are teaching their children how to be safe in the zoo. It is also possible that the safety barriers of the zoo should be looked into so that it is not possible for anyone, not even a child, to get past it. Why are people not more outraged over the fact that this child could easily slip into the exhibit? It is tragic that the gorilla was killed, but it is important to learn from this incident so that it is not repeated again for the sake of our children and for all the animals in the zoos.
