If you've paid the slightest amount of attention to the news and social media these last few weeks, you've likely read about Harambe, a critically endangered Silver Back Gorilla from the Cincinnati Zoo. Harambe was shot by zookeepers in order to protect and save a child that fell into the animal's pen. Opinionated social media users around the world are crying out for justice and for guilt to be decided. PETA-fanatics are declaring zoos to be inhumane, and this incident a clear reason for why they should all be disbanded. Readers that have never dealt with "runners" (children that will run away the moment their parent blinks) or small children are signing petitions for the parents to be investigated as neglectful. Everyone wants to point fingers to make sense of this shocking situation, but hardly anyone is drawing perhaps the most logical conclusion: accidents happen.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and safety procedures aren't figured out that quickly either. In the mid-20th century, no one was driving around with their children in rear-facing carseats with proper restraint and cushion systems like they are today. You were more likely to find a child on their parent's lap than you were to find them buckled in at all. Many children died as experts and concerned parents figured out the safest ways to transport children in cars. But no one was calling these parents negligent and no one was crying out for car manufacturers or dealerships to be held at fault. Certainly no one was shouting that cars were clearly the devil's work and that everyone should return to walking.
So why can't we seem to figure out that this is just something that everyone needs to look at and figure out how to prevent in the future?
To those who believe zoos are evil and should discontinue their practices - I'm not sure you understand what most zoos do. Many zoos, like Popcorn Park Zoo, are not capturing their animals from the wild, but instead are rescuing animals - ones that were raised as exotic pets, or abandoned by their families, or some other circumstance that would have prevented their survival in the wild. Zoos do research on how to protect their animals, keep them safe, prolong the existence of their species. Zoos like Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, Louisiana, are using their resources to create larger and more natural habitats to give their animals the best lives possible. And many zoos, like the Cincinnati Zoo, are protectors of endangered species. Animals that, if left out in the wild, would be poached, even on protected land. Animals that are drowning and dying in their natural habitat because humans cannot seem to come to terms with their effect on the earth. Animals that are losing their habitats to invasive species of plants and animals and need a protected place to live. Zoos themselves are not the problem.
To those who believe the zookeepers had another choice - the jury will never come in on this one. When you are in the moment, and that moment is terrifying, you only have seconds to make a decision - and this decision was life or death. In hindsight, experts have been able to go back and look at the videos and critique or support the decision the zookeepers made. But who can say the choice they would have made in that moment? And as a regular, non-gorilla expert person like you most likely are, how are you supposed to be able to read a gorilla's movements when even seasoned experts and scientists cannot agree on the body language interpretations? I understand, we don't like to see animals killed when we find it unnecessary. Trust me, I have a sister who would spend her life's savings on surgeries for a guinea pig rather than put her beloved pet down. But in that moment, a bullet was necessary. A wild animal being agitated by loud observers can kill anyone, child or grown human or Big Foot, at the blink of an eye. A tranquilizer dart would have taken anywhere from seconds to ten minutes - seconds to ten minutes this child may not have had. Sometimes the best choice is the most extreme, and the one we want the least. But we have to make it.
To those who believe the child's mother was neglectful and should be prosecuted - you have probably not mothered these four children. No two children are alike. Growing up, if my mother told me not to climb into a gorilla's pen, I probably would have listened. But then again, at two years old, I was found in a pen with two Irish Wolfhounds at a festival, when my parents - much like this mother - had turned their attention for just a moment. You can tell a child no all you want, but we were all children once. And we all did things, even when our parents told us no. This child just decided to do something much more extreme than most other children.
The real solution here, rather than to start arguments, ruin lives, place blame, is to start working to prevent. Prevent another animal from death because they had a child in their pen. Prevent another child from climbing into an enclosure because they wanted to. Prevent another parent from international scorn because their child could climb into an enclosure. So how do we do that?
We look at enclosures. What can zoos do to their enclosures to make them better at keeping us out, now that they appear to have mastered keeping animals in?
We educate. How can we better teach young children about the dangers of animals that look cute and fun, when they see them as their friends on movies like The Jungle Book and shows like The Lion Guard?
We remember. How can we bring this tragedy into our lives as a possibility when we take our small children to the zoo?
These are the attempts we should be making to right this situation and to honor Harambe. His death should be in purpose, not in vain. There was not one person, one institution, one action that created this. Like many situations, it can basically be chalked up to "accidents happen" and now we ask ourselves - how do we keep this from happening again?
