Gorilla pays heavy price for human irresponsibility

[Cerillium]

"A holiday weekend outing at Cincinnati's zoo turned doubly tragic Saturday when a 4-year-old* boy was hospitalized after falling into a gorilla enclosure - and zoo workers had to kill the rare gorilla to protect the boy." - article. [It's also copied into the spoiler below]

A holiday weekend outing at Cincinnati's zoo turned doubly tragic Saturday when a 4-year-old boy was hospitalized after falling into a gorilla enclosure - and zoo workers had to kill the rare gorilla to protect the boy.

Cincinnati police and emergency crews responded to a report of a child falling into the exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden at about 4 p.m. Saturday. Police confirmed the child was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center near the zoo, and was treated for serious injuries that were not considered to be life-threatening.

Cincinnati Zoo President Thane Maynard said the boy crawled through a barrier and fell an estimated 10 to 12 feet into the moat surrounding the habitat. He said the boy was not seriously injured by the fall.

The Cincinnati Fire Department reported in a press release that first responders "witnessed a gorilla who was violently dragging and throwing the child."

Maynard said the zoo's 17-year-old male western lowland gorilla, Harambe, grabbed the boy and dragged him around. Two female gorillas were also in the enclosure.

The boy was with the 400-pound animal for about 10 minutes before the zoo's Dangerous Animal Response Team deemed the situation "life-threatening," Maynard said.

"The choice was made to put down, or shoot, Harambe, so he's gone," Maynard said. "We've never had a situation like this at the Cincinnati Zoo where a dangerous animal needed to be dispatched in an emergency situation."

The fire department release said the boy was in between the gorilla's legs at the time of the shot.

Maynard said the Dangerous Animal Response Team followed procedures, which they practice in drills. He said in the 38-year history of the zoo's gorilla exhibit that they've never had anyone get into the enclosure.

After the gorilla was shot, zoo employees unlocked the gate and two firefighters quickly retrieved the child, according to the fire department.

"It's a sad day all the way around," Maynard said. "They made a tough choice. They made the right choice because they saved that little boy's life. It could have been very bad."

Brittany Nicely of Dayton was visiting the zoo with her two children and four other children on Saturday. They were at Gorilla World when the incident took place.

"Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the little boy in the bushes past the little fence area. I tried to grab for him. I started yelling at him to come back," Nicely said.

"Everybody started screaming and going crazy," she said. "It happened so fast."

Nicely said the gorilla rushed toward the boy and led him by the arm through the water in the enclosure. She said initially the gorilla seemed protective and only alarmed by all the screaming.

The area was then evacuated by zoo staff. Nicely stood with her group outside the exhibit.

"About four or five minutes later we heard the gunshot," she said. "We were pretty distraught. All the kids were crying."

Nicely said she spent the whole trip home explaining why they are told to stay close and not run at the zoo.

"That could have been them," she said. "Something like that could have happened. It's a very traumatizing experience for anybody involved. The kids, the zookeepers, the other gorillas that now don't have him there any more."

News of the incident triggered huge social media response. A video posted by the Enquirer had been viewed about 71,000 times at 9:30 p.m. Saturday.

Many commenters criticized the parents of the boy for not watching him more closely. A Facebook group called Justice for Harambe was created and gathered more than 100 "likes" in less than two hours.

"This page was created to raise awareness of Harambe's murder on 5/28/16," the page states. "We wish to see charges brought against those responsible!"

Lt. Steve Saunders, the spokesman for the Cincinnati Police Department, said no charges were being pursued against the child's parents.

The decision to shoot Harambe instead of tranquilizing was made in the interest of the boy's safety, Maynard said.

"In an agitated situation, it may take quite a while for the tranquilizer to take effect," he explained, "At the instant he would be hit, he would have a dramatic response. You don't hit him and he falls over."

Maynard also explained that while Harambe didn't attack the child, the animal's size and strength posed a great danger.

"All sort of things could have happened in a situation like that. He certainly was at risk," Maynard said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and little boy.”

He said that zoo officials have not yet spoken with the family of the child who fell into the habitat. Zoo officials will be reviewing the security of the enclosure and their procedures, but said they have no plans to stop the gorilla program.

Harambe was born at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas before he was moved to Cincinnati in September 2014. Another gorilla, Gladys, named for her home zoo, also come to Cincinnati from Brownville.

Western lowland gorillas are one of the four gorilla subspecies. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, populations of the critically endangered animal are hard to estimate due to the dense, remote rainforests where they make their home, but experts say between 175,000 to 225,000 could live in mostly in Congo, but also in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.

In 2009, the International Species Information System counted 158 male western lowland gorillas and 183 females in captivity in the United States.

"Harambe was good guy. He was a youngest who started to grow up. There were hopes to breed him," Maynard said. "It will be a loss to the gene pool of lowland gorillas."

The zoo is open Sunday, but Gorilla World will remain closed until further notice.

vid sauce for more details.

While we could argue that no animals should be kept in captivity, or that better methods could be utilized when dealing with human intrusion into animal exhibits, I'm focusing on the parents here.

The parental duty to supervise is inseparable from the parental duty to rear a child. A child, who because of his age and inexperience cannot appreciate surrounding dangers, must be properly supervised in order to keep him safe. The child in this case was only 4. His parents should have taken more responsibility pertaining to his supervision. The child willfully disobeyed. Well, not really. I suspect the child wasn't warned to "stop that" while prowling near the bushes because the parents hadn't even noticed him doing so. (It would have taken time for him to go through the bushes and find a gap that allowed him to gain access to the exhibit. This wasn't a case of him climbing over a wall in a matter of seconds while Mom's head was turned.)

I'm not heartless. As the father of a child, I know a 4 year old is a pain in the ass. I took my daughter to the zoo at that age and, honestly, my attention was more on her rather than the animals, mostly because she wanted to see everything, touch everything, and get up close and personal with everything. I couldn't get so caught up in taking pictures or observing what was in the exhibit that I lost track of her. Was the visit pleasant for me? Of course! I experienced the zoo through her reactions to new surroundings. It was a chance to interact with her. It provided teaching moments. That said, I'm stern. Even at that age, my daughter wasn't prone to vanishing from sight or running away because I took (and still take) my parental responsibilities seriously.

The zoo probably won't receive any compensation regarding the loss of an animal currently on the WWF Critically Endangered Species list. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 3109.09: Property Damage does impose liability on parents when a child willfully causes damage to property, but this wording is too vague. We don't know if the child willfully disobeyed. I suspect the child wasn't warned to "stop that" while prowling near the bushes because the parents hadn't even noticed him doing so. (It would have taken time for him to go through the bushes and find a gap that allowed him to gain access to the exhibit. This wasn't a case of him climbing over a wall in a matter of seconds while Mom's head was turned.) The news focuses on the gorilla yet doesn't at all address the fact that the parents bear some responsibility for "policing" their child's activities.

What say you, NSG? Should parents be held accountable if their unsupervised child, due to his inability to grasp the severity of the situation, engages in activity that results in property loss? Should these particular parents be charged with negligence? Do you feel that, in general, parents in the US seem less vigilant when compared to parents in other Western societies?

I believe they should be held accountable. In my opinion, they should be held liable for the cost to replace the gorilla.

edit: typo
edit: additional news source NY Times article. Thanks, Farn.
Monday Update: Outrage grows
Tuesday Update: USDA to investigate incident and exhibit safety measures cincinnati.com; DA announces criminal investigation news piece & Hamilton County Prosecutor Press Release
Wednesday Update: they've confirmed his age as 3. Criminal charges (against parents?) not ruled out. sauce.
Sunday 6 June Update: Prosecutor to decide charges

[Paredonia]

That poor gorilla. Yet another innocent soul mindlessly killed just to benefit unworthy humanity. We truly are the worst thing to have ever happened to this planet, we really are.

[Ralkovian Grand Island]

Do you want planet of the apes? Because this is how you get planet of the apes.

[Gauthier]

#PrimateLivesMatter

[Quokkastan]

Not that the parents shouldn't have been paying more attention, but it really shouldn't be possible for a child to just stumble into an animal enclosure. I'm going to fault the zoo on this at least a little bit.

[Ifreann]

That poor gorilla. Yet another innocent soul mindlessly killed just to benefit unworthy humanity. We truly are the worst thing to have ever happened to this planet, we really are.

Don't be such a sillypants.

[Paredonia]

Don't be such a sillypants.

What's silly about it? Surely no-one can deny the poisonous and corrosive influence that humans have on the world? Surely no-one can deny just how much damage and destruction we cause, to each other, to other animals, to the environment, to the world?

[UnjustlyBannedLlamas]

#PrimateLivesMatter

Careful, I know you didn't mean it as a racial thing but someone reading that who's lees familiar with The Gauth might get the wrong idea.

[Grand Eurassia]

Its a sad day because they had to take down the gorilla. That child should of been supervised and its parents should he held completly responsible. There should be legal action against them. There is signs that say dont go in, dont try to go in, dont climb the fence, etc and yet look what happened.

[Gauthier]

Its a sad day because they had to take down the gorilla. That child should of been supervised and its parents should he held completly responsible. There should be legal action against them. There is signs that say dont go in, dont try to go in, dont climb the fence, etc and yet look what happened.

Because small children have the reading comprehension skills of adults.

[Oceara]

They should take a look into the engineering behind their Zoo if 4 year olds can get inside of exhibits.

[Frank Zipper]

I find it hard to believe that the zoo's efforts to protect the public can be so easily circumvented by a four year old.

[Ralkovian Grand Island]

They should take a look into the engineering behind their Zoo if 4 year olds can get inside of exhibits.

Probably this.

[Frank Zipper]

My first thought was a parent with Munchausen's shoving the kid through for the attention.

[Rusozak]

Something something idiot parents and incompetent zoo management.

[Quokkastan]

I find it hard to believe that the zoo's efforts to protect the public can be so easily circumvented by a four year old.

Have spent some time with four year olds I don't.

"Honestly, I don't know how she even managed to reach the steak knives, much less get one in the toaster."


But you're right. It's difficult for zoos, because many of them were constructed with antiquated designs, and trying to update them while maintaining the functionality of the park and not upsetting the animals is a real nightmare.

It has to be done regardless.

[United Kingdom of Kent]

That poor gorilla. Yet another innocent soul mindlessly killed just to benefit unworthy humanity. We truly are the worst thing to have ever happened to this planet, we really are.

Yes ofcourse, we should have clearly left the child to the mercy of the gorilla.

[Benuty]

That poor gorilla. Yet another innocent soul mindlessly killed just to benefit unworthy humanity. We truly are the worst thing to have ever happened to this planet, we really are.

Yes ofcourse, we should have clearly left the child to the mercy of the gorilla.

Maybe that child could grow up to be the antichrist?

Seriously though.

[Mefpan]

The zoo should get looked at for insufficient security measures. The parents should be looked at for not paying close enough attention to their child.

But seriously? Between the life of a human and the life of a gorilla, nine times out of ten, screw the gorilla.

And I'd say more responsibility lies with the zoo here. At the very least insofar that they'll have to fix whatever safety problems were uncovered during this tragedy.

[Gauthier]

Yes ofcourse, we should have clearly left the child to the mercy of the gorilla.

Maybe that child could grow up to be the antichrist?

Seriously though.

Nah, if the kid was the Antichrist the gorilla would have instagibbed before the Dangerous Animal Response Team could have shown up.

[Socialist Tera]

That poor gorilla. Yet another innocent soul mindlessly killed just to benefit unworthy humanity. We truly are the worst thing to have ever happened to this planet, we really are.

Yes ofcourse, we should have clearly left the child to the mercy of the gorilla.

There aren't ways to tranq the Gorilla? It had to be lethal? I doubt it. Anyway, it is the zoos fault.

[Republican Union of America]

Putting the more intelligent, "great" animals in zoos is a grave crime in and of itself. I don't want to sound like some weird PETA supporter, but a line needs to be drawn somewhere. They belong in the wild.

[The first Galactic Republic]

Do you feel that, in general, parents in the US seem less vigilant when compared to parents in other Western societies?

That's quite the leap.

[The first Galactic Republic]

Putting the more intelligent, "great" animals in zoos is a grave crime in and of itself. I don't want to sound like some weird PETA supporter, but a line needs to be drawn somewhere. They belong in the wild.

The thing is the species is endangered, and zoos are a good way of insuring at least extinction isn't possible.

[Cerillium]

Do you feel that, in general, parents in the US seem less vigilant when compared to parents in other Western societies?

That's quite the leap.

As an Asian that's lived in both the States and Europe, it's my assessment.