One of the larger topics of discussion this week was the shooting of a beloved gorilla named Harambe in the Cincinnati Zoo. The reason for the shooting was to rescue a 3 year old boy who had fallen into the enclosure. Social media and animal conservationists are outraged by the shooting of the endangered gorilla.
The only question I have in this situation is, where was the mother when her child was climbing over and falling the nearly fifteen foot drop into the enclosure? She would have had to be distracted for a decent amount of time for this to occur. I can understand that maybe she did not constantly helicopter her child, but when you have a curious 3 year old, you need to keep your eyes on them. Due to her distraction the only option for the zoo was to shoot Harambe. A tranquilizer could have startled him possibly injuring the child further. Harambe was a part of an endangered species and it was not his time to die.
A larger barricade between zoo visitors and the exhibit has since been put in place so something like this can never happen again. There was nothing wrong with the original, but clearly it was a hazard to a climbing child under no supervision. Although the mother may be seen as guilty, the zoo is still liable for the incident.
People who have read the articles and have seen the footage covering the topic are taking two different sides. One side of people believe that the whole ordeal is the zoo’s fault and the other believes it is the mother of the child’s fault for not watching her child. What makes everything worse is that Harambe didn’t do anything wrong, he was just being a gorilla and gorillas are not used to interaction from people especially a child in their enclosure. Some news reports even say that the video shows Harambe protecting the boy. Others feel that zoos in general are unnatural.
In the end, it was a freak occurrence and fingers will be pointed; although it was both the zoo and the mother’s fault the only one paying the price is Harambe. Harambe will always be remembered by those who admired him and the family of the boy should be thankful he is still alive with minimal injuries. Most zoos and aquariums have signs stating not to climb or touch the glass and those rules should be followed by all.
