Cincinnati – The killing of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo after a 4-year-old boy tumbled into the ape’s enclosure triggered outrage and questions about safety, but zoo officials called the decision to use lethal force a tough but necessary choice.
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More than 2,000 people signed a petition on Change.org that sharply criticized the Cincinnati Police Department and the zoo for putting down the animal and called for the child’s parents to be “held accountable for their actions of not supervising their child.”
Cincinnati police on Sunday said the parents had not been charged, but that charges could eventually be sought by the Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney. A spokeswoman for the prosecutor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Facebook page titled “Justice for Harambe” had more than 3,000 likes by Sunday afternoon, a day after the 400-pound (181-kg) gorilla was shot dead about 10 minutes after encountering and dragging the child. The animal, named Harambe, was a Western lowland gorilla, an endangered species, and the zoo said it had intended to use him for breeding.
“If we think it’s acceptable to kill a gorilla who has done nothing wrong, I don’t think our city should have gorillas,” Manvinder Singh posted on the Facebook page.
Witnesses told local television that the boy repeatedly expressed a desire to join the gorilla in the zoo habitat. Moments later, the boy crawled through a barrier and fell about 12 feet (3.7-meters) into a moat surrounding the habitat, where Harambe grabbed him, zoo officials said.
It was the first time in the 38-year history of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s gorilla exhibit that an unauthorized person was able to get into the enclosure, zoo president Thane Maynard said on Saturday.
“They made a tough choice and they made the right choice because they saved that little boy’s life,” he said, adding that a member of the zoo’s Dangerous Animal Response Team fired the shot that killed the ape.
Maynard said the team decided to use deadly force instead of tranquilizers to subdue the gorilla because it could have taken some time for the drug to take effect when an animal was in agitated state.
The child was taken to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. Hospital officials, citing privacy laws, declined to say on Sunday whether the child had been released or to disclose any details about his injuries.
Western lowland gorilla numbers in the dense rain forests of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea have declined by more than 60 percent over the last 20 to 25 years, according to the World Wildlife Federation.
The Cincinnati zoo was open on Sunday, although Gorilla World was expected to be closed indefinitely. Neither the zoo nor the fire department responded to a request for comment.
At other U.S. zoos, similar encounters have ended in tragedy, including the 2013 fatal mauling of a 2-year-old boy by a pack of wild African dogs after he fell into an exhibit at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium.
A man who in 2012 jumped into an enclosure at New York’s Bronx Zoo to be “one with the tiger” suffered bite wounds and other injuries but survived.
But there was a happy ending when a 3-year-old boy fell into the gorilla den at Brookfield Zoo near Chicago in 1996, and an 8-year-old female gorilla named Binti Jua picked up the unconscious boy and protected him from the other primates. The act of kindness won Binti Jua national attention as Newsweek’s Hero of the Year and one of People’s most intriguing people.
As Jews we look what the Halacha says that even if it’s a “sufek Pekiach Nefesh” you Must be “Mechalel Shabbos” to save a life and after watching the videos of the gorilla it was only a matter of time till this boy would of been killed intentionally or even by accident.
The zoo absolutely did the right think.
Only liberals (Obama, Hillary chevrah) think a gorilla has more value then a human like.
No wonder they support abortit.
Liberals are Sick people!
The people of this country are out of their mind. They want they want to sacrifice a baby for a gorilla! Now you know why this country is going down so rapidly. I’m sure all of these gorillas supporters are Democrat Cooks and would either vote for Hillary or even worse Burnie.
Midas S’dom in full force once again, the reckless liberal thinking. Let’s look at some of the ideas this distorted pattern gives us:
* When faced with a risk to a human, one must do more to protect the animal.
* Illegal immigrants who are in violation of the law have priority to any and all entitlements to legitimate American citizens.
* Anyone may enter a bathroom designated for any gender, by citing an even temporary identification with the gender of interest. Any threat to the safety of others there is null and void.
* Terrorists are victims, and we should be pitying them that they resort to bloodthirsty murder and violence.
* States in America who wish to enforce law can be sued and penalized for doing so, when the President wants things to be different.
* The most prominent of the Axis of Evil (that supports most of the terror in the world) can be given license and support to develop nuclear weapons and carry out their threats against United States and Israel.
* Candidates can run for office despite being confirmed liars and guilty of a career of criminal behavior.
This list can continue with many more entries. Society is self-destructing.
These peoples brains r compromised. Theyd give up a human for a guirilla. Wish it wld happen (by mistake) to their child. Theyd shush up bigtime!!! Probbly childless people only! A parent w a heart wld never dream to b upset at saving a little boy.
Crazy that it’s even newsworthy that they killed a gorilla to save a human being…of course!!! It’s a non news item!
Even crazier is that people would are more outraged that they would be has the gorilla killed the boy. Sad society we live in…sick liberals.
How low we have sunk, There imbecils would rather have the gorilla eat the child than be put down.
How different are the Yidden from the non-Jew.
By us, safek pekuach nefesh michalel shabbos, if there is a slight doubt that a person’s life is in danger we are obligated to not observe the shabbos, and for certain kill an animal if we fear it might harm a young boy. Yet there are many non-Jews who believe that killing the gorilla was wrong but not too concerned with the well being of the young boy.
i think it was another racist act by the police, #HandsUp #blacklivesmattet where’s #TheRevAl & #NAACP?
Yes, whoever was with this kid should have been vigilant. And yes, the zoo is culpable because there must have been some obvious way for the boy to get in.
But 3,000 signatures because of outrage over a dead ape? It would have been better had the gorilla killed the boy? We live in a terrible world when an animal is more valuable than a human, and the lines between right & wrong have been obliterated.
If you haven’t read “Lord of the Flies”, now is the time. Then you will see what we are headed for.
People have lost their moral scope.Yes the parents should’ve watched him, and yes he shouldn’t have gone in. But once he fell in I’m shocked it took 10 minutes to decide to kill the gorilla. People are valuing animal life more than human life. What would’ve happened if the boy would’ve been killed? Or badly injured? Would they still be saying that no one should’ve shot the gorilla?
Same outrage in Canada last year when police shot a large bear that had climbed up someone’s backyard tree and wouldn’t come down.
When dog owners walk their ferocious beasts down the sidewalk they expect other humans to yield way to the beast and if there is only room for one, for the dog to get the space. The other day I biked past a dog walker who screamed at me that sidewalks are no places for bicycles and when I passed him and told him that they are also first and foremost for humans he got furious and turned around to chase me a few feet. Too many dog owners treat their dogs as weapons and if they wielded a gun that way they wouldn’t get away with it.
These animals lovers who signed the petition, are the same type of crowd who were against the extermination of the Canadian Geese in the NYC area, following the almost fatal crash of US Air Flt. 1549 (Captain Sullenberger’s plane). In this case, those gorilla lovers have dismissed the fact that that the little boy could have been mauled and killed, by the agitated male gorilla. Zoo animals of all kinds are wild animals, who can turn on their trainers at any moment, with deadly consequences. Also, it is ludicrous for the parents to be charged for child neglect. The zoo should have constructed a more secure enclosure to keep children away from the area. However, I’m sure that there will be the nasty commentators on this site, who will want the parents punished, in spite of the fact that they were punished enough during the ordeal before the gorilla was killed.
It’s precisely because of these nutcases that Trump has such a turnout. Most Americans are fed up with these liberal left whose corrupt mind would rather save animals than human beings.
It is horrible that due to the zoo and the parents’ negligence, a child was almost killed at the hands of a dangerous animal. It is also horrible that a majestic, powerful, and rare animal had to be killed because of such negligence, but in no way was it wrong to kill the animal. An innocent human child’s life was at risk. Anyone who does prioritize the child’s life over that of the gorilla is a severely immoral person.
i watched the video, insane shouldve been shot as soon nas the first officer arrived TEN MIN is an eternity !! what has happened to the world an ape over a child a human is not just a better ape its a lightyear away- these same people didnt make signatures when thousands of migrants are treading water to save their life
The goal of animal rights groups is for animals to cease being used for human entertainment, and they are right about that.
I believe some of the pro-gorilla people are more outraged that the child’s parents were negligent, and had they been properly supervising their child, the animal would still be alive.