On May 28, 2016 at the Cincinnati Zoo, a four-year-old boy escaped near death, and a 17-year-old silver-back gorilla tragically lost his life. In a nutshell, the four-year-old boy escaped his mother's care and sped away to the exciting exhibit of the Cincinnati Zoo's Silverback Gorilla, Harambe. The young boy slipped through the fence of Harambe's exhibit and then experienced perhaps one of the most intense moments of his life as he was dragged through the water by a 400-pound beautiful muscle machine. Tragically, the two live mammals that were in the exhibit turned to one, as Harambe was shot by the zoo.
As someone who works with animals on a daily basis, a hard reality to face is that the human life just seems to carry more value. That being said, I fully agree with the decision the zoo made to euthanize Harambe, even in an unconditional method, and I would like to present with you how I reached that opinion.
At the time, the zoo's only other option was to try and tranquilize the middle-aged gorilla, but would that have helped? This is hard to say.
What a lot of people fail to understand at this point is that tranquilizing is not as simple as loading a dart full of sedatives into a high-powered rifle, aiming, pulling the trigger, and waiting for the sedatives to work their magic. It is no easy process, and must be handled with care and a strong disciplined method. Also when tranquilizing, there are many drawbacks.
To start, you must choose the right sedative. To most this seems easy. Unfortunately, this is much more difficult than an "eeny meeny miney mo" process. This is very dangerous, and can actually do more harm than good. Out of many sedatives in the local zoo DVM's (doctor of veterinary medicine) sleeve, they must pick one that will only alter the behavior in the most delicate way. Each sedative also happens to have a different effect, whether it be euphoric, where the animal is still aware of surroundings, just dazed, or one that will simply put the animal to sleep for some selected period of time. After the sedative is chosen, then comes the dosing. For most large animal sedations I have witnessed at the Montgomery Zoo, they have mixed two substances, carefully blending the two together to induce a drowsy harmony.
Next the dart is picked, having to be a big enough size, but not too big where it could injure the animal. The way this system works is by the dart entering a dense muscle, such as a thigh muscle, which then injects the controlled substances into the body where it will be metabolized and used for it's intended purpose.
After you get your dart locked, loaded, and pressurized, you must hit your 400 pound gorilla who is running around with a toddler attached to its arm. You miss, even by a few inches, you could sever an artery, cause worse damage, or possibly the worst thing that can happen, piss him off.
What a lot of people are failing to see is that Harambe is a wild animal, genetically made to survive against some of the Earth's top predators. Also contrary to some news reports, Gorilla's are not easy-going, docile creatures. They are killing machines installed with the gift of strength, agility, and intelligence. So strong in fact, that they can crush a coconut with one hand without even trying.
Born into captivity or not, his genetics are deeply rooted with the same genes as his other gorilla brethren who are not locked up in a captive box for our entertainment. While in captivity, these animals are not the same free spirits as in the wild, but by no means are they tame. In fact, typical behaviors that can sprout from captivity include increases in aggression, hiding, and exploratory behaviors. With other animals, such as a dog, you can find one common denominator: Animals are most likely to attack or bite when they are overstressed, in jeopardy of a territory or object, and/or fearful. While Harambe was only dragging the child around and exhibiting no apparent aggressive behaviors, had someone freaked him out any way, the situation easily could have turned into an even more tragic bloodbath featuring not only Harambe's blood, but also the child's.
So, what should the zoo have done? It is hard to say because unless everything goes perfectly with sedation, they are stuck in this catch 22 where if they don't shoot the gorilla he could injure the young boy, but if they do, then the endangered beast will be shot down like a dog in the street. As soon as that young boy entered the exhibit, Harambe never stood a chance.
