What Do You Think About…Harambe? (the gorilla)

In the United States, this is a pretty big deal right now. For those of you who don’t know here is a news snippet.

“The gorilla who grabbed a 4-year-old boy after he fell into the gorilla’s enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo has been shot and killed. Animal lovers are outraged that the gorilla, named Harambe, was slaughtered and have slammed the child’s parents for recklessness.” Hollywoodlife.com

OK, so that is a very brief synopsis of what happened. I encourage you to google it if you have the time. There are tons of news stories and videos.

It is all over my Facebook, friends with their various reactions. All over Twitter, comments about the parents and the zoo. There is even a petition right now being signed by 100’s of 1,000’s of people trying to get the kid taken away from his parents.

I am not 100% sure what it is that I think “should” have happened’. What I do know is that there simply has to be more to this story that hasn’t been published yet.

On Saturday Paul (my husband) and I took our 6 children to the zoo. Our youngest is 3 1/2 years old. While we were looking at the Gorilla, I thought “WTF” happened to that kid? How in the world did that kid make it all the way to the Gorilla? I mean we were at the Detroit Zoo, not the Cincinnati, but I imagine that the Gorilla habitat is made fairly similar.

First there is a fence around the ENTIRE habitat. Yes, it is a wooden fence with big enough gaps for a human to climb through, that part is true. Though, you would notice! Then if you made it through the fence, there is a good 25 feet (straight shot) or hundreds of feet if you wander around before you get to the Moat. How did that 4 year old make it through the fence and all the way to the edge of the grass, fall down the moat without ANYONE noticing?

Now, I get that you get distracted. That is life and we are humans. I keep extra attention on my kids at the zoo, way more than I do in most places because I have constant paranoia about all the stupid things that any of them could do. Though, even if you get distracted, how did no one else stop that child from climbing through the fence? Tell the Mom, hey your kid is…?

That is the part that I CAN NOT wrap my head around. I am very interested to know what you think?

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Pic from Liveoutdoors.com

8 responses to “What Do You Think About…Harambe? (the gorilla)”

Sugar, Spice, Everything Nice

May 31, 2016 at 7:24 am

Something similar happened in 2012 here at the Pittsburgh Zoo, only a mother was holding her toddler up onto the railing and the child fell in the African Dog enclosure. The dogs killed the boy, and all of the dogs were put down and the exhibit has since been torn down and changed. That woman ended up suing and winning against the zoo, when she very blatantly was the reason the kid fell. Witnesses have video of her literally dangling the baby over the railing to get a better look!

The gorilla didn’t stand a chance the minute that child fell. If he had killed the boy, the gorilla would have been shot. He didn’t kill him, and he was shot. Either way, that mother should be held responsible in some way, whether it’s by involving CYS, or even making restitution to the zoo for the loss of a very large main attraction sue to her negligence.

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1. makingtimeforme
  
  May 31, 2016 at 7:34 am
  
  I couldn’t agree more my friend!!
  
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ejfpaff

May 31, 2016 at 7:47 am

This story really bothers me. I think it’s because my natural response is to blame the mother, which isn’t fair because we don’t know what actually happened at the time. One of the eye witnesses said she had overheard the mother arguing with the boy because he kept saying he was going to go swimming in the water (inside of the exhibit). She knew there was a chance he was going to try and get to the water. WALK HIM AWAY. Bah!
It also speaks to our society as a whole that our natural response is to gather in a crowd and yell, scream, and film what is happening. The gorilla wasn’t near the child until he noticed the people gathering and looking at the boy after he fell. Maybe he was trying to help…who knows.

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1. makingtimeforme
  
  May 31, 2016 at 7:55 am
  
  Exactly
  
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Patricia

May 31, 2016 at 12:43 pm

I would just like to know how a 4 year old got in there in the first place. I am totally against the Zoo/Circus thing. Let me tell you if you suddenly appeared in my house uninvited, you may get shot! The boy was in the gorilla’s home. What was this mother doing?

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theutopiauniverse

May 31, 2016 at 1:48 pm

Hi,
I also have been following the story, by all accounts the gorilla at no moment attacked the child, on video it is seen quite clearly that he offers his hand to the child and drags him out of the water in the moat, he was helping the child, I understand the gorilla is a wild animal and you never know the outcome, but to shoot him for helping a child in distress (which he obviously noticed) which the parents did’nt even notice he was missing, let alone distressed, the zoo have said to drug the gorilla would of taken to long !! for what ? This is a very sad story for the gorilla, the little boy is fine which is wonderful news, but sadly at the death of the gorilla and not his parent, where and what the hell were they doing ?.

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1. makingtimeforme
  
  May 31, 2016 at 2:03 pm
  
  My thoughts exactly!!!
  
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pinkyy

June 2, 2016 at 12:56 am

At first I thought it was extremely unfair and wrong to shoot the gorilla. But then, if we were in the parents place we would have also obviously chosen our childs life over the gorillas. So I guess we can’t really blame them. Also for the people bashing the child’s parents – the parents might not have even had any fault. I’ve seen many little boys escaping their moms grip and running away as fast as possible. How is it the moms fault? Sometimes it’s IMPOSSIBLE to control hyper little boys!!

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