On May 28, 2016, an endangered silverback gorilla named Harambe, was killed after a 3-year-old boy climbed into the gorilla’s cage. Fearing for the toddlers safety, the Cincinnati Zoo made the tough decision to shoot their gorilla. The media used the event as a huge cash cow as American citizens began to debate what side was right.

While many believe it is the fault of the parents for not watching over their child, others blame the zoo for not creating better enclosures. As we reach the four-month mark, the Harambe debate is still a hot topic as more people come up with new ideas that could’ve saved the gorilla.

The Harambe conversation should be a progressive topic, one that seeks to advance the understanding of zoos and animal protection. However, the media has turned the tragic event into nothing more but jokes and memes. While these jokes may seem to be playful, they are actually causing harm to the cause, the zoo and society as a whole.

Many believe that the accident in which killed Harambe should cause Americans to rethink the way zoos are run and maintained. While many of these ideas may seem like good ideas, they are impractical in the real world. Making “completely safe” enclosures could alter the view of animals, thus making it impossible for people to view and study animals, therefor destroying the awe of a zoo experience. Others may suggest going away with zoos altogether, however, the idea destroys many benefits that come with zoos. These benefits including fighting wildlife extinction, educational opportunities, and a safe haven for injured animals. At the end of the day, the only real solution is education. Many Americans look at zoos as a safe place for family vacations where kids can run free. While zoos do strive for safety, and for the most part are safe, visitors forget that they are still putting their children near wild animals, many with violent tendencies. Having a close eye on one’s child is crucial at locations like zoos in order to protect them from escaping into an enclosure, and even a possible kidnapping. This is the type of conversation we should be having about Harambe, however, we have gained nothing more than a hashtag that simply says #d*cksoutforHarambe.

Now let’s talk about the Cincinnati zoo, after Harambe was killed last May, the Cincinnati Zoo underwent tremendous attack. While some attacks may seem justified such as citizens crying out for a Harambe memorial or a change in the zoo’s way of enclosing the exhibit and properly educating people, many are cruel. The latest attack involved many internet critics going on to the zoo’s social media pages and denouncing them for caring about other animals when they didn’t seem to care about Harambe. These attacks have made the zoo’s posts about other endangered species seem minimal compared to past events that the zoo had little control over.

Finally, the effects these jokes have on society can be worse than people imagine. Over the last few decades, many people have gone on to be desensitized. Meaning that they have been exposed to so much crude humor surrounding tragic events that they no longer show any emotion toward future events that share a similar tragedy. By making jokes out of these tragedies, it seems that the importance of the event goes unnoticed or in some cases the wrong side can be glorified. The greatest example of this can be seen in the Holocaust or World War II jokes that have spread rapidly the last few years. These jokes allowed current generations to make fun of the tragic happenings of WWII concentration camps and thus they have learned little about how to stop it from happening again in the future. Jokes such as these have gone on to make Adolph Hitler a comedic character that many find funny and in some cases legitimized. While the Harambe incident may not be on the same global scale as the terrible happenings of WWII, the effects are still the same. Making fun of sad situations prevents people from feeling emotion, and altogether prevents them from recognizing that they happened. They can also be dangerous to people who lived through or had an emotional connection to these events. In the case of Harambe, the jokes and memes have caused a tragic incident to become nothing more than a wide-scale joke made to get likes on social media.