I can't say it enough....this this this this this!!!! Stupid people don't keep an eye on their kids or directly put them in what should be clearly seen as a dangerous situation. And now an innocent being had to be killed. I do understand why the zoo had to do what it did, but it all falls back on the parents, imo. The keepers must be devastated.

People always like to blame the public getting access to the animals on bad exhibit design, etc. In some cases that is true, but most of the time people will go to amazing lengths to get close/touch the animals. Pushing behind thick thorny hedges, climbing over fences and barriers, holding their kids up so they can reach high enough to stick their fingers through a space in the fence or throw a rock through same. Ugh. Even when you warn the parents/people that what they are doing is not allowed or potentially dangerous they look at you like you have two heads. I watched that kind of crap go on for 30+ years and it just makes me sick to hear this kind of story. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the parents have it all on their cell phones ready to share with friends and family. Bitter much?? YES! (And I am glad the toddler is ok)

Here is a short, sweet video of Harambe eating celery:

https://www.facebook.com/cincinnatizoo/videos/10153742921385479/

On their cell phones, probably. Shame the gorilla had to be put down. Put parents like this in cages, the animals take good care of their young ones.

the guardian or parents should be sued by some animal rights group on behalf of the Gorilla. Wrongful death, pain & suffering, what ever. This just pisses me off.

I can't help but wonder why the zoo didn't make it impossible for anyone to get in there.


It's a zoo. Kids will be kids. The zoo should allow for that.

again and another innocent animal dies.

Where the hell were the parents?

eom

It was a joke

God, some people's kids

You don't just let a 3-year-old "wander off" like that....bad parenting, IMO.

Other zoos use clear, heavy-duty plastic enclosures where the public can get very close to the gorillas without any possible harm coming to them.

While I'm glad the toddler will be okay; it's sad that there was no other way to rescue him without killing the gorilla.

On one side the barrier are sensitive, intelligent creatures. On the other side are humans.

The animals need better protection.

That enterprising young child was on quite the roadtrip to get to where falling in was even an option.

for him to find a way into that enclosure. I think the zoo should sue the parents for having to kill one of their priceless and precious creatures.

And the zoo worker who had to kill the gorilla should sue them personally, for emotional trauma.

Updating their Facebook...

In my opinion this was all caused by the parents not controlling their 3 year old.

Zoos are supposed to be for kids. Design them to keep kids safe.

-Kid fell into gorilla enclosure, was knocked unconscious from the fall.

-Male gorilla walked over to see what the kid was. Poked the kid, decided the kid wasn't interesting, and then walked away.

-Kid wakes up, starts crying.

-Female gorilla puts down her child, walks over to kid. Tries to console the kid a little.

-Female gorilla picks up kid, carries him/her over to a door where the zookeepers regularly access the enclosure, and waits with the kid for the zookeepers to open the door.

-Zookeepers open the door, zap a cattle prod (they just made it make noise). Female gorilla runs away, leaving the kid.

So this incident was significantly different, with the kid being "dragged around" for 10 minutes. Also, different species of gorillas, so that probably played a factor. Finally, the genders of the gorillas probably played a role in the different decisions.

Young male gorillas are known to "play rough" with younger gorillas. Likely a case of "not knowing their own strength" more than actual aggression, but still dangerous. Usually the younger one's mother or the alpha male chases the adolescent away... but in this case, the "young gorilla" (the child) doesn't have that sort of connection, so the kid becomes a plaything.

Clear case of parental negligence.

Were they tested for blood alcohol? Perhaps drugs?

We are all devastated that this tragic accident resulted in the death of a critically-endangered gorilla," said Zoo Director Thane Maynard. "This is a huge loss for the Zoo family and the gorilla population worldwide."

The child was alert when transported to Children's Hospital Medical Center. The hospital is not releasing details on his condition.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and little boy," said Maynard.

Little kids can be awfully good at getting away. The parents may have been frantically trying to find him.

Guns are a different matter.

Why are we assuming the parents were neglectful idiots? Yes, it's a possibility, but we don't know.

(Second video, 1'48&quot

World leaders could learn a lesson from him.

Glad that the child will be ok but if his parents had been paying attention to their child in the first place this incident never would happened. A call to Child Protective Services to investigate the parents and home situation could be in order.

should be left in the wild....

Same for the rest of those animals at the zoo.

Keeping great apes in cages needs to end.

To get that far, parents had to have not been watching for more than 5 mins. I live near the zoo

holding or dragging the child.
If so, it will appear online and/or on news broadcasts.

The Cincinnati Zoo is well-known for its animal breeding programs, including many gorillas over the years.
Harambe was a silverback, perhaps rarer than other gorilla species.

Children can be very quick and clever when they have the imagination and determination to get someplace or do something.
Children can also be deluded by cartoons and movies that depict wild animals as benign or friendly, when in fact that is not the animals nature at that time.

Parents have to do whatever is necessary to protect their children.
I did use, very infrequently but when I considered it necessary to protect a very active and inquisitive toddler, a type of harness and leash. I didn't like doing that, but felt it necessary under the situation, and all grew to adulthood none the worse.

...at the pediatric office, I stress that kids are fast, curious, and have no judgement. A potentially very hazardous combination. There is nothing at all wrong with those child harnesses, and you should not feel one moment of regret for using one. I used them with our sons - the device allows busy young children enough freedom to move around and parents the peace of mind to know their kids are safe.

a block from our home. When we walked to a nearby store he would try to pull away from me and head toward the cars in the road. I quickly decided against taking that route!

Parents not watching their child.

Zoo... the barrier --- wasn't.

Stupid, stupid parents!!!!





Harambe.....

Two females went into their enclosure when called. The male wouldn't go in had the kid and was dragging him around. The zoo had policy in place and followed it.

They need to secure the fence so little kids can't get through it.

Actually took child out of water where he could have drowned and propped him up to standing. Gorilla was very gentle.

People are insane not to teach children to respect other beings, and to let them live in peace. They are making this planet so much unhappier because of their own disrespect, their own self-absorbed, unintelligent blundering through their lives.

I regret the people running the zoo didn't respect the animals well enough to protect them properly. There's no escuse for what happened.

Getting into the enclosure? Damnit!

because we reward stupid people in our society

If it was, why are emergency specialist not equipped with pepper spray? That would deter any animal in seconds. To be prepared to lethally kill a gorilla you have to have some sort of assault rifle, gun available. If that same person was ready, at full arms with an assault rifle, why did not have a pepper spray available too? Freaking BS

First, pepper spray would have done nothing but make the situation a thousand times worse. It would NOT deter a gorilla in seconds, I promise you. More likely it would enrage and scare him and he would take it out on the kid.

People have no idea of how powerful and volatile these animals are. While Harambe might have remained relatively calm, and eventually been lured into the back area, he also might have literally torn that kid's head off in a split second, not even meaning to kill him. They are that strong and don't understand how weak humans are. He was already agitated by the commotion going on, so he could also have decided the screaming little boy was a threat, and it's his job to take care of threats to his troop. He was dragging the boy through the water and became more aggressive as the minutes passed.

There are teams in zoos that train specifically for incidents like this, both with tranquilizer darts and real bullets, and a high powered rifle. It would be critical to make 'the shot' the first time, not be spraying bullets everywhere. And I have no doubt that the person that had to do this today is devastated, and will never forget this day. It would be someone on the staff, not some trigger happy cop.

People also need to know that tranquilizer darts don't work magically like you see in the movies or on tv. The animals know what is coming when they see the gun or blow pipe, so they don't just sit still to give you a nice target. If you do get a decent hit, the dart may not inject fully, and any great ape worth his salt will pull it out as soon as it hits so again, you don't know if they will get a full dose. They are full of adrenaline, so that affects how the drug will work and how long it will take. You can't just shoot them again with another dose because you don't know if they got the first one or not, so now you risk an overdose. A good hit with a full dose in perfect circumstances will take up to 15 minutes to take effect. In those few minutes the animal can do irreparable damage before it goes down.

This whole situation is horrifying to anyone that has worked closely with gorillas. They are amazing, wonderful, complex and dangerous beings. And this should never have happened. I do agree with you here....freaking BS. But I sadly believe the zoo had no choice but to do what they did in this case.

and stood him up. No way the gorilla was a threat.

If gorilla wanted to kill the child, it certainly could have during the time child was in the enclosure. Ironically, if gorilla killed the child, gorilla would likely be alive, since there would be no need to shoot the gorilla.

and expecting others to do it for them. I bet they were on their cell phones or using the phones to take pictures. Now they'll blame the zoo and the Gorilla and not themselves. Sad this had to happen.

their child and for whatever the cost of obtaining another gorilla. What parent would allow a child to go crawling around at a zoo?

A silverback charged me but the tracker was able to subdue him by "talking" to him. If the gorilla in this case was habituated then he should have been trained to remain to calm in this situation.

a gorilla in controlled zoo environment. Just a very sad situation.

I'm just saying...

No excuse for this whatsoever. And yes, I have kids and I know they can be a handful at age 3. Still inexcusable.

an innocent gorilla.

Witnesses have stated: 1) the child had expressed a desire to go swimming and playing with the gorillas and 2) at the time of the incident the mother's attention was on her other children. She clearly took more children to the zoo then she was able to properly supervise and she was a total idiot to turn her back on the one child has already talked about wanting to play with the gorillas. Witnesses have also indicated that it looked like the gorilla was actually trying to help the child. The injuries were probably sustained by the fall.

The more I learn about the incident the angrier I get. The gorilla was minding its own business in its exhibit and ends up dead because a kid who didn't know better fell into the exhibit because his mother wasn't paying attention. The mother should face charges and, if the family sues the zoo, the zoo should counter sue the family. That family owes the zoo a gorilla.

I am sick and tired of innocent endangered species paying the price for the intentional or stupid actions of humans.

Poor gorilla.

Sounds like this woman went to the zoo with a bunch of kids and couldn't properly supervise them all. And an innocent endangered animal was killed as a result.

and so it goes. Maybe the parents can pay for the cost of replacing the animal.

... blaming the parent, you HAVE raised multiple young kids right? Otherwise, why don't you get a clue because you don't know what you are talking about.

If you take more than one kid on an outing and you think you can control them without putting them on a leash, you are pretty damned ignorant.

And so many kids visit zoos but we only hear infrequently about a tragedy such as this, so, yeah, I'm blaming the parent.

My sympathy for the mother just evaporated. She thanked 'God' for arranging the death of the gorilla.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/05/30/mother-whose-son-fell-into-the-cincinnati-zoo-gorilla-enclosure-says-god-protected-my-child/

"God protected my child until the authorities were able to get to him. ... Thank you to everyone that helped me and my son today and most importantly God for being the awesome God that He is."

by killing the gorilla and saving the boy.

After all, God put the kid in there in the first place.

Last edited Tue May 31, 2016, 10:50 AM - Edit history (1)

They are required to do so.

I work with ANSI standards. ANSI is the American National Standards Institute. There's an ANSI standard - or several - for every thing out there. How wide are steps? ANSI standard. What's their slope? ANSI standard. How high are doorknobs (or levers)? ANSI standard. How much effort is required to turn them? ANSI standard. Ski lifts? ANSI standard. Everything has an ANSI standard.

I'm sure that zoos are members of standards-setting organizations too. I did some digging this morning and came up with this. These standards deal with the welfare of the enclosed animals. I'll keep looking to see what standards there are to deal with the humans viewing the animals.

Zoological Association of America Animal Care & Enclosure Standards and Related Policies

Scroll down to page 49:

It's male gorilla that has role of defender.
Not a female, nuturer role.

The zookeepers called the others in from the display area of the enclosure. (they entice them with treats).
All the gorillas left the display area except for Harambe.
Why?
Because he had something that was better than the treats they entice them with.

Zookeepers don't enter the enclosure with the gorillas, there was no way this was going to end nicely.

The gorilla was showing signs of 'displaying', which in nature i have read, the males go to elaborate ways to display their power, like throwing, slaming, breaking and dragging things like branches etc.
He was responding to the screams of the onloookers, thankfully the zoo acted fast enough to put him down.

from how it happened, to complaints being filed, to the parent shaming (and death threats against the mother),
holding the zoo accountable, etc.

http://www.cincinnati.com/

I'm keeping up with the news aspect of the story. Warning: auto-play video.

I understand that the life of the child was paramount. I am sad that the gorilla died.

I am livid with the parent(s) of this child for allowing him to get into the exhibit in the first place.

Parents are responsible for their minor children's behavior until that minor child attains adulthood. Period. We have got to revert to the thinking in society that someone else is going to be looking after someone's child. No. That responsibility belongs to the parents!

I see it all the time. I see it at the gas station. Mommy or daddy pumping gas and little junior outside the vehicle running around in front of cars.

I see it at Costco. Mommy or daddy deciding which drain cleaner to buy and little junior pulling stuff off the shelves making a mess.

I see it at movie theaters. Mommy and Daddy allowing little junior to bawl his freaking head off annoying everyone else without getting up and taking him to the lobby.

I see it at cat/dog adoptions that I attend. Mommy and Daddy allowing little junior to pull the dog's ears while they are telling stories about the wonderful cat/dog that they so selflessly rescued.

No. Enough!

Little junior has to be their priority. Little junior has to be the focus of their attention at all times. Little junior is THEIR responsibility. If you choose to have a child, that child is YOUR responsibility.