“Western lowland gorillas are gentle animals”.
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Witnesses said the gorilla dragged the screaming boy around the habitat, local media reported.
“Harambe was a good guy”, Maynard said.
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The response team used lethal force rather than tranquillisers, as the drugs would not have had an immediate effect, exposing the child to more danger, he said. “The zoo security teams quick response saved the child’s life”, he said in a statement.
New video tonight of a toddler being dragged by A 400-pound gorilla after he got into the primate’s enclosure. So a zoo employee fired a shot using a long rifle and the child was removed from the enclosure.
The child, whose name was not released, was taken to Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center, where he was expected to recover. Fire department officials described his initial injuries as “serious”.
“I know that was a tough decision for the zoo to make”, one commenter said.
Harambe came to Cincinnati a year ago from the Gladys Por- ter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas. The gorilla then stops, with the child below him and looking up at him.
One Twitter user wrote: “So a handsome, innocent gorilla has to die because neglectful parents can’t control their kids?”
A gorilla was killed today after it dragged a 4-year-old boy who got into its enclosure today at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.
“Unfortunately, it was a bad situation where a 4-year-old didn’t have the attention of his mother for seconds”, she said.
Kim O’Connor told WLWT5: “People are yelling, “There’s a boy in the water”.
“The mother’s like, ‘No, you’re not”.
“Sometimes it’s not you getting into trouble, but someone else getting hurt because you not doing what you’ve been asked to”, he said. The crowd started screaming, drawing Harambe’s attention to the boy, O’Connor said.
She added: “I saw it, and I couldn’t even prevent it. It happened so fast”.
The safety of Zoo Atlanta visitors, animals and staff is of paramount importance at Zoo Atlanta at all times.
Lt. Steve Saunders, a Cincinnati police spokesman, said there are no plans to charge the parents. “He was released from the hospital on Saturday night and was safe at home, his family said Sunday”.
Ms Montalva said anaesthetic darts would not have stopped the attack in time. “The barrier that we have in place has been effective for 38 years”.
The animal was shot over the incident. “But we’ve never had a situation like this at the Cincinnati Zoo, where a unsafe animal needed to be dispatched in an emergency situation”.
The zoo said Harambe did not comply when they called and a tranquilizer simply was not enough.
On Saturday, a child climbed through a public barrier at Gorilla World in Cincinnati Zoo and fell into the exhibit’s moat.
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Visitors left flowers at a gorilla statue Sunday. This is true not just of our gorilla complex, but of the entire Zoo and all its habitats. Western lowland silverback gorillas are considered critically endangered, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
