Cincinnati Zoo kills gorilla after child gets into his cage, May 28, 2016

[AlwaysShocked]

It sounds like there were SEVERAL factors at play for this to happen. 1.) A rambunctious 4 year old boy who likes to climb. I had one of those. 2.) Insufficient adult supervision of small children while at a place of potential danger. 3.) A zoo maintaining an animal in an enclosure that a 4 year old could easily breach.

Obviously, though a sad outcome, the zoo did what they had to do to save this child's life.

Here at the Pittsburgh Zoo a few years back we had a mother who had her small child in front of her standing up on a railing overlooking a pack of some kind of wild dogs. The child fell in and the dogs attacked and killed the child.

IMO what with the known stupidity of some zoo visitors, it is incumbent on the ZOO to see to it that animals can't get out of their enclosures and humans can't get into the enclosures.

Come on. Something was not right that a four year old could get into the gorilla enclosure at this zoo.

 

[jjenny]

Animal didn't get out. Child somehow managed to get in. You can't protect people from everything they could possibly do to get themselves into danger. For instance, if parents don't watch the kid, kid could open window and jump out. Should we therefore get rid of all the windows?

 

[jjenny]

I am not sure what you are asking? Should they have let the child die?

I don't think there is anything unclear as to what I am asking, but here it is again. Since gorilla wasn't attacking the child, why didn't the zoo use non-lethal force to get gorilla away from the child? Some witnesses think gorilla was actually trying to protect the child.

"A visitor who recorded the harrowing moments after a 4-year-old fell into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo said Sunday that the hulking ape appeared to be more of a gentle giant — protecting the child before the animal was shot dead."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...tect-child-who-fell-enclosure-witness-n582311

 

[Kakidoll]

From video i saw, gorilla was very gentle with the kid. kid kept going back TO gorilla..... made no effort to walk away or leave the gorilla alone. Poor parenting, animal suffers. NOT the gorillas fault. He probably treated the kid like it was a baby ape. Can't blame the gorilla for acting like a gorilla.

 

[AlwaysShocked]

I don't think there is anything unclear as to what I am asking, but here it is again. Since gorilla wasn't attacking the child, why didn't the zoo use non-lethal force to get gorilla away from the child? Some witnesses think gorilla was actually trying to protect the child.

"A visitor who recorded the harrowing moments after a 4-year-old fell into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo said Sunday that the hulking ape appeared to be more of a gentle giant — protecting the child before the animal was shot dead."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...tect-child-who-fell-enclosure-witness-n582311

The decision to kill the gorilla was made by the Director of the zoo, who is much more familiar with the animal than we are. In an interview he said the gorilla was "400 lbs. and incredibly strong". The gorilla apparently began dragging the child through the moat water and at one point threw him. The incident lasted 10 minutes according to witnesses. At some point the zoo Director had to make a decision. Perhaps the Director felt that in "protecting the child" the gorilla might well kill the child.

What were they supposed to do? Stand around and HOPE the child did not drown while being "protected"?

 

[jjenny]

The decision to kill the gorilla was made by the Director of the zoo, who is much more familiar with the animal than we are. In an interview he said the gorilla was "400 lbs. and incredibly strong". The gorilla apparently began dragging the child through the moat water and at one point threw him. The incident lasted 10 minutes according to witnesses. At some point the zoo Director had to make a decision. Perhaps the Director felt that in "protecting the child" the gorilla might well kill the child.

What were they supposed to do? Stand around and HOPE the child did not drown while being "protected"?

So now the zoo is an expert? Weren't you just blaming them for the enclosure not being secure enough?

 

[KaaBoom]

I don't think there is anything unclear as to what I am asking, but here it is again. Since gorilla wasn't attacking the child, why didn't the zoo use non-lethal force to get gorilla away from the child? Some witnesses think gorilla was actually trying to protect the child.

"A visitor who recorded the harrowing moments after a 4-year-old fell into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo said Sunday that the hulking ape appeared to be more of a gentle giant — protecting the child before the animal was shot dead."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...tect-child-who-fell-enclosure-witness-n582311

The answer to your question is in the article.

He said Harambe wasn't tranquilized because the drugs could have taken a while to become effective in an animal of Harambe's size.

 

[jjenny]

The answer to your question is in the article.

Well, if this is their reasoning, using lethal force isn't completely safe either, is it? The shooter could have missed (or even hit the child instead of gorilla). That is not so far fetched, considering even police miss a lot of their shots and gorilla is a moving target. Or shot could have wounded the gorilla instead of killing him, making him more agitated.

 

[LolaMoon08]

I kind of agree with you, but I only saw video of the first of the encounter, when the gorilla was actually behaving kind of protectively - and with curiosity - toward the child. Apparently later he began dragging the child through the water, and at that point the child is in imminent danger according to the animal behavior team. In a case like this, it could go badly in a mere moment - and as I understand it, the boy is hospitalized with "non life threatening injuries". So he is injured. If they had lots of time to plan this - like, shooting tear gas into the cage or going in with nets, I'm sure they would have done it.

Here's the link. Seeing it makes me madder - and sadder - at this loss. According to the witness, she overheard the woman who was supervising this boy and several others tell this child several times not to crawl through but he did it anyway.

http://www.wlwt.com/news/video-gorilla-grabs-child-whos-fallen-into-habitat/39774904

BBM When I was a child and I didn't listen to my parents in a public setting we were immediately removed from the event as punishment for our behavior. Had the person responsible for this child had taken hold of the situation (her child not listening) and removed him from the situation until he could behave himself, none of this would have happened.

4-year-old will be 4-year-olds, but they are fully capable of behaving themselves if taught properly.

 

[KaaBoom]

Well, if this is their reasoning, using lethal force isn't completely safe either, is it? The shooter could have missed (or even hit the child instead of gorilla). That is not so far fetched, considering even police miss a lot of their shots and gorilla is a moving target. Or shot could have wounded the gorilla instead of killing him, making him more agitated.

I guess the sharpshooter was confident that he could kill the animal, without injuring the child. Apparently they didn’t feel they had any choice anyway.

 

[abstr]

<modsnip>.....We IMO don't have enough info yet. Bless the poor child and the poor Gorilla.

 

[jjenny]

<modsnip>......We IMO don't have enough info yet. Bless the poor child and the poor Gorilla.

I am not sure what info is missing. Sounds like this child wanted to get into enclosure and managed to do so. Gorilla then was killed in order to retrieve the child.

 

[LaborDayRN]

I wish they could have saved this beautiful gorilla. It hurt me deeply to read what happened. As for why he was shot and not tranquilized, I think I can speak a little to this. My son has worked for years with exotic and endangered species. Animals are his life and he loves them with all his heart. He is fighting the good fight to try to keep some species from disappearing.
When an animal is tranquilized (for a medical procedure) there is a response to being shot with a dart. Because the dart is painful, it can be a very violent response which would put the child in more danger. Due to increased adrenaline rushing through the animals system, the animal will be agitated and have more energy. This makes it difficult for the tranquilizing agent to take affect. You now have an upset, unpredictable animal who may take some time to be fully out. I think the decision was made to protect the child. IMO I don't think this was an easy decision for the zoo director to make. What ever people may think of zoos, the individuals who study long and hard to work with and protect animals actually do love the beautiful creatures they care for. I'm sure there are MANY broken hearts today.

 

[abstr]

I am not sure what info is missing. Sounds like this child wanted to get into enclosure and managed to do so. Gorilla then was killed in order to retrieve the child.

One final comment, that is very, very clinically correct. I take things a bit more emotionally and this is such a sad situation and this thread is just not my way of "judging" something.

 

[Portabella]

I believe the barriers at ALL zoo's need revamped when it comes to dangerous wildlife... (two lions killed this past week due to a nude nutter getting in with them) and now this poor Gorilla. I think the mindset used to be to protect us from the wildlife, we now need barriers designed to protect the wildlife from us and to aid in protecting us from ourselves. Very sad all the way around. I do blame the parent(s) as well as the zoo. The boy although not innocent, did not understand I am sure the danger until it was ongoing. And the poor Gorilla first raised in captivity then murdered due to human mistakes/shortcomings....Just disgusted....IMHO

 

[gregjrichards]

The parents are negligent if the boy was being looked after properly this would never have happened. I wish the gorilla could have been saved this was completely avoidable. I do not blame the zoo at all they needed to protect the life of this little boy and they took immediate action to protect him. It's terrible this beautiful animal is dead R.I.P Harambe 1999-2016.

 

[Hoosgirl]

Sad story from his original zoo:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...cincinnati-zoo-mourns-loss-article-1.2653971#


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[JeannaT]

This video shows more of the gorilla encounter, including him dragging the child through the water.

I don't know what to think. 1% of me thinks well, "sorry you jumped in, let's do our best to get you out of there without further harm to either the boy or the gorilla". If this were a large snake I wouldn't feel this way, but there's a part of me that wonders really, is a boy more valuable than a severely endangered gorilla? I'm surprised I feel that way.

And I wouldn't feel that way if the child were an 18 month old that toddled into the enclosure. This is a 4 year old boy, who clearly knew he was doing wrong and did it anyway, and now this lovely gorilla is dead. I guess I want to hear an apology from his caretaker who must have known this child is absolutely uncontrollable - my guess is this isn't the first completely outrageous thing this child has done. And now it's cost the gorilla, dearly.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2016/05/29/boy-falls-into-gorilla-habitat-pkg-nr.cnn

 

[Montjoy]

I don't know why we should trust a zoo to keep a 400 pound gorilla in an enclosure if they can't keep a 4 year old child out of it. The zoo not only endangered the boy by its lazy design, but endangered (well, killed) a gorilla because of it.

 

[Tulessa]

JMHO, but make the parents pay for everyday feeding and up keep, since the day this beautiful animal arrived in Ohio! Make the parents pay for the cost of putting him down. Then make the parents pay the cost to replace this Gorilla, with another just like it! Make money talk!