This past Sunday, Harambe, the 17-year-old western Iowland gorilla was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo. A three-year-old boy crawled through the barrier into the gorilla enclosure and fell about 10 to 12 feet into the moat surrounding the gorilla's habitat. There were two other female gorillas in the yard who were led out, but Harambe refused commands to leave the yard after the boy fell in. The gorilla proceeded to lead the boy with his arm and violently dragged him around the moat. After 10 minutes of assessing the situation, the Dangerous Animal Response team at the Cincinnati Zoo had to follow procedure and make the tough decision to shoot down the gorilla. The 3-year-old boy was taken to Cincinnati Children's hospital and was lucky enough to have only suffered a few minor injuries.
This entire event is a tragedy for the gorilla that was lost, the zoo staff and zookeepers, the mother of the boy and the boy himself. No one is walking away from this situation feeling comfortable or at peace. The boy will most likely be traumatized for a good amount of time, the mother had to watch her child get thrown around by a 400-pound animal that she had no control over, the zoo staff had to put down one of their own and Harambe lost his life. I understand that people are angry and frustrated and feel that the situation should have been handled differently, but the zoo staff was faced with a scenario where they had to follow procedure and save a little boy's life. Do I think shooting Harambe was the right move? Not necessarily, but I was not there. I was not the one who had to decide to gamble with a 3-year-olds life, which was put in danger by an animal that was 10-times his size. I was not part of the Dangerous Animal Response team who had to pull the trigger and put down this gorilla, who probably didn't know he was doing any wrong. I was not there to see the fear in the boy's eyes or watch him get dragged around. But as a community member of Cincinnati, I will not go out of my way to bash the Cincinnati Zoo for what they had to do in this tragic situation. No one could have predicted that this would have happened; this is just one of those extremely unfortunate life instances that ended in a way that most of us wish we could change. The zoo director stated, "It's sad day all the way around. They made a tough choice. They made the right choice because they saved that little boy's life. It could have been very bad."
On another note, everyone needs to leave the mother of this child alone. Most of us were not there, and if you're not a mother, you really shouldn't be spewing out unneeded comments. I, personally, am not a mother, but I know that children can disappear, run away or in this case, crawl into an inclosure within seconds, and they are just gone. Do I believe she should have kept a closer eye on him? Of course, I do! Especially since the little boy was making comments about wanting to get into the gorilla enclosure. But do I think that myself and others have a right to go about making things worse for this mother that has already been pushed into the public spotlight, scared out of her mind and is probably already more embarrassed than we could imagine? No. You have a right to your opinions, but try your best to either keep them to yourself or keep them to a minimum.
Did you know that 2,000 gorillas die in the wild each year because of things like habitat destruction and the bushmeat trade? That illegal poaching for bushmeat alone accounts for more than 1,000 gorilla deaths each year? This doesn't make this gorilla's life any less important or OK, but puts a different perspective on this situation. Everyone can and should learn from this. The zoo is doing their part with some new improvements; Gorilla World will re-open this Tuesday with a new barrier that is now 42 inches high with solid wood beams at the top and rope netting on the bottom. "Our exhibit goes above and beyond standard safety requirements, but in light of what happened, we have modified the outer public barrier to make entry even more difficult,” zoo director Thane Maynard has stated. And hopefully mothers and fathers and families all over the Cincinnati area will remember to keep a close watch on each other and their children while visiting places like the Cincinnati Zoo, King's Island or anywhere else where unfortunate things like this could happen where there are so many people and so many attractions.
Overall, I hope the community and people of Cincinnati can come together to celebrate the life of an incredible animal who had a good 17 years on this earth and hope and pray that something like this will never happen again.
