(Reuters) - 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.
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.
Authorities did not identify the child or his parents. The family could not be reached on Sunday.
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.
A blog post on the website for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals questioned why it was necessary to kill the gorilla and whether zoos could meet the needs of such animals.
"A 17-year-old gorilla named Harambe is dead, and a child is in the hospital. Why?" blogger Jennifer O'Connor wrote. "Western lowland gorillas are gentle animals. They don't attack unless they're provoked."
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.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; Additional reporting and editing by Frank McGurty and Nick Zieminski)




https://www.yahoo.com/news/killing-gorilla-save-boy-ohio-zoo-sparks-outrage-175543989.html

The outraged people are not serious.
If it were their child, would they gamble with a tranquilizer? Mtchew.
Jobless folks. Always looking for something to be mad about

Oyibo self, equating animal life to human life.
Like one Libya advocate who values cow life above Nigerians' lives.

I know they will because they are mostly psychos

They now prefer the wild animal to the child.

I think they were more upset with the parent who let The kid go 15 feet down to the animals part of the zoo.

Any parent should know if you are to take kids that young to the zoo, you better have them strapped on a stroller or hold them still,
It could have been a lion den for goodness sakes

Iam glad that boy is alive and well, very scary

in this world I have come to realise that they are two set of people, those you can easily please and those you cannot please no matter what you do. If the gorilla had killed the boy, they would have called for heads to roll in the zoo administrative management, in fact there would have been riots and all sorts of demonstrations.

All these white people sef... thinking they have sense. So what they're saying is if it were they or their children in the animal's cage, they would rather die or let their children die rather than let the animal be killed.
And 2000 daft people signed a criticism to the police department...

cococandy:
The outraged people are not serious.
If it were their child, would they gamble with a tranquilizer? Mtchew.
Jobless folks. Always looking for something to be mad about

Harambe was peaceful and such a nice fellow. I'm pissed. Why couldn't the parents hold their pikin ehhhh My mother would have calmly rubbed my head the soil the first time i go out with her so i realise to never leave her side during outings (only one sibling has gotten lost and was seen dancing in the middle of the festival whilst mummy gasped shock that he had run out to join them) poor Harambe. Western gorillas are endangered, white kids are not.

Well what had happened had happened.
At that point it was the kid's life or the gorilla's.
I know what I'd choose.

Of course I'm annoyed with the parents.

But I don't get the prostesters' point. Risk the kid dying because his parents were careless?

BTW I'm sorry for harambe. May he rest in peace.

Onegai:


Harambe was peaceful and such a nice fellow. I'm pissed. Why couldn't the parents hold their pikin ehhhh My mother would have calmly rubbed my head the soil the first time i go out with her so i realise to never leave her side during outings (only one sibling has gotten lost and was seen dancing in the middle of the festival whilst mummy gasped shock that he had run out to join them) poor Harambe. Western gorillas are endangered, white kids are not.

I will kill a million Gorillas to save a day old child. The parents were careless but it's not the kids fault.

The protesters no get work.

cococandy:
Well what had happened had happened.
At that point it was the kid's life or the gorilla's.
I know what I'd choose.

Of course I'm annoyed with the parents.

But I don't get the prostesters' point. Risk the kid dying because his parents were careless?

BTW I'm sorry for harambe. May he rest in peace.

I guess they wanted tranquilisers instead and there are many American parents who are very indulgent. I have a brother who would have shot the child, not the gorilla his reason would be that "it's going to be ugly watching the child being mauled". We don't let him babysit Baby E infact we are not sure we want him to reproduce

Onegai:


I guess they wanted tranquilisers instead and there are many American parents who are very indulgent. I have a brother who would have shot the child, not the gorilla his reason would be that "it's going to be ugly watching the child being mauled". We don't let him babysit Baby E infact we are not sure we want him to reproduce

That your brother Na wa. Lol.

Well yea I get them wanting tranquilizers. But those take time to work and the kid might be dead before then. It's just unfortunate.

I dont get this. Would you rather kill the boy and save the gorilla?

From the video I saw, Harambe dragged the child across the water to another part of the enclosure. As a parent, I know I'll freak out and want the gorilla be killed. It was suggested if a zoo keeper familiar with the gorilla would've helped than gunning down the poor thing. Like Chris Pratt in Jurassic world. Abi na only film that one dey work sef

Onegai:


I guess they wanted tranquilisers instead and there are many American parents who are very indulgent. I have a brother who would have shot the child, not the gorilla his reason would be that "it's going to be ugly watching the child being mauled". We don't let him babysit Baby E infact we are not sure we want him to reproduce

You this woman!

When pundits like us say that we hate the USA, many people will think that we are stupid.

USA is a satanic enclave, valuing the life of gorilla than that of a child.

They have gone beyond abortion to this one? GOD forbid.

Why did they move the gorilla to their land? Did the gorilla give his concent?

The parent has some explaining to do. How did they loose sight of their toddler? What if a paedophile had got the boy?

shooting dead an endangered specie without trying all other options is not good either.

Looking at the pictures I saw on Sky news the boy was at more risk of drowning

That poor little boy will be traumatised by the incident for years maybe. I'm annoyed with the parent/s

so madness don reach this point? anyway not surprised thats where the world is heading to

.

When I read this on the news some two days ago I knew it was bound to open a can of worms.

Who gives a tuppence if gorillas are endangered species?.

Since when has the life of a grizzly and hideous animal mattered more than that of a human?.

"Justice for Harambe".

"If we think it's acceptable to kill a gorilla who has done nothing wrong, I don't think our city should have gorillas".

Comments like the afore are why Russians think Americans are sick.

darkenedrebel:
When I read this on the news some two days ago I knew it was bound to open a can of worms.

Who gives a tuppence if gorillas are endangered species?.

Since when has the life of a grizzly and hideous animal mattered more than that of a human?.

"Justice for Harambe".

"If we think it's acceptable to kill a gorilla who has done nothing wrong, I don't think our city should have gorillas".

Comments like the afore are why Russians think Americans are sick.

Gbam! Gbam!! Gbam!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rubbish. What the parents did or what the gorilla's status of innocence and light is, is not pertinent. It all boils down to the fact that at that moment, the boy's life was at stake and the best option to get the boy out alive was to kill the gorilla because the tranquilizer might have made it violent in the minutes before it knocked it out. The police made the right move, kudos. There was nothing to negotiate there.

Some white people are wacko. I remember the abuse I received once on fb for tentatively stating that the $20,000 spent on a prosthetic leg for a farm CHICKEN escapee, could have been put to better use feeding orphans or empowering widows in Somalia. From the murderous responses I received that day, you would have thought that I had just suggested that an army should be sent out to slaughter all kids below one year of age worldwide (I am sure that king Herod never got the kind of hate mail that I got that week).

Rubbish. What the parents did or what the gorilla's status of innocence and light is, is not pertinent. It all boils down to the fact that at that moment, the boy's life was at stake and the best option to get the boy out alive was to kill the gorilla because the tranquilizer might have made it violent in the minutes before it knocked it out. The police made the right move, kudos. There was nothing to negotiate there.

Some white people are wacko, I am sure that no African-American or Latino is part of this nonsense. I remember the abuse I received once on fb for tentatively stating that the $20,000 spent on a prosthetic leg for a farm CHICKEN escapee, could have been put to better use feeding orphans or empowering widows in Somalia. From the murderous responses I received that day, you would have thought that I had just suggested that an army should be sent out to slaughter all kids below one year of age worldwide (I am sure that king Herod never got the kind of hate mail that I got that week).

Farmerforlife:
Rubbish. What the parents did or what the gorilla's status of innocence and light is, is not pertinent. It all boils down to the fact that at that moment, the boy's life was at stake and the best option to get the boy out alive was to kill the gorilla because the tranquilizer might have made it violent in the minutes before it knocked it out. The police made the right move, kudos. There was nothing to negotiate there.

Some white people are wacko. I remember the abuse I received once on fb for tentatively stating that the $20,000 spent on a prosthetic leg for a farm CHICKEN escapee, could have been put to better use feeding orphans or empowering widows in Somalia. From the murderous responses I received that day, you would have thought that I had just suggested that an army should be sent out to slaughter all kids below one year of age worldwide (I am sure that king Herod never got the kind of hate mail that I got that week).

Unfortunately, westerners are having Africa Fatigue: I'm their minds, there is always some mindless war or starvation and famine. And it has been made clear to them (with the help of our "leaders" that it is all our fault because we cause more than half our problems. So they0l are tired of us constantly wailing because there is always gonna be something wrong with Africa. But that chicken, the chicken is an innocent victim

Efemena, my brother believes in Natural Selection. Very ruthless. His own philosphy in life is "Why should you survive if you're stvpid?" so it's hard to trust him with children who act silly because they're kids. And all the kids that know him tend to like him, especially teens.

I watched the video of the gorilla dragging the child and even without being told the sex of the animal, I knew it was male. All that posturing and chest beating is so typically male.

A female gorilla would have reacted differently, but this is a male, very territorial but lonely. So when the child fell in, he pounced on the boy and began tossing him around like the alpha male he is. Judging from what I saw, he saw the boy as a play thing who invaded his territory, so he began dragging him around. He wasn't going to harm the child, but all that manhandling could have been eventually fatal.

It was tough, but the right decision.

An0nimus:
From the video I saw, Harambe dragged the child across the water to another part of the enclosure. As a parent, I know I'll freak out and want the gorilla be killed. It was suggested if a zoo keeper familiar with the gorilla would've helped than gunning down the poor thing. Like Chris Pratt in Jurassic world. Abi na only film that one dey work sef

Harambe was not going to harm that child. He was just playing rough play that would have killed the boy or seriously injured him.

I think the parents should face prosecution because their negligence has caused the depletion of the numbers of an almost extinct specie of animal

Ishilove:

Harambe was not going to harm that child. He was just playing rough play that would have killed the boy or seriously injured him.

I think the parents should face prosecution because their negligence has caused the depletion of the numbers of an almost extinct specie of animal

Of course they should. The child was hurt more from the fall and the rough play than actual attempt to kill from the gorilla. Plus witnesses are saying that the boy kept saying he wanted to go into the cage with the gorilla. His parents should have held him tighter. I have a relative like this, with a son like this (who doesn't hear word) and she will be there, bleating helplessly, whilst the boy misbehaves. When he went to stay with my sister, the first time he stepped out of line was the last time that period. As soon as he got back to his mum, he pulled a crazy stunt and got lost on a bridge and almost fell overboard.

If you've been to the Cincinnati Zoo, you will know whoever was minding the child that day ought to be slapped for this. That is why there is a leash for children, some kids have to be harnessed.

Ishilove:

Harambe was not going to harm that child. He was just playing rough play that would have killed the boy or seriously injured him.

I think the parents should face prosecution because their negligence has caused the depletion of the numbers of an almost extinct specie of animal

@bolded I can only imagine the horror. In that split sec the only thing to think of is how to ice the gorilla. The parents should be prosecuted but I doubt that's going to happen.

They don't have problem, if their problem is the death of a gorilla.

Thank God,the child was not hurt.

nnamdibig:
I will kill a million Gorillas to save a day old child. The parents were careless but it's not the kids fault.

The protesters no get work.

That's just the point. there arent a million gorillas anywhere. There are only a 100,000 gorillas left in the world.

Scratch that, 99,999 now.

RIP Harambe.

Seriously There was a kid left recently in Nigeria to die for witchcraft and Africans never hood wicked.

We have so many Street hopeless kids in Africa.

Now why are people acting as if white people are wicked in wanting to save a gorilla and a boy.

Sometimes I wonder what we Africans care for, which is absolutely nothing.