A 4-year-old boy crawled through the barrier and plunged 10 feet down into the moat at the Gorilla World habitat at the zoo. “The barriers exceed any required protocols”, Thane Maynard, director of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens, said in answer to questions at a news conference about the incident on Saturday.
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Stones has been in the zoo business for about 50 years and has worked with Harambe’s family since they first entered the US, starting with the grandparents.
Harambe’s species, the western lowland gorilla, is on the endangered list.
A witness reports hearing the boy tell his mother he wanted to get in the water Saturday afternoon.
Michelle Gregg broke her silence on Sunday to say people were too quick to judge.
He also said tranquilizing the gorilla was not an option.
The zoo received thousands of messages of sympathy and support from around the world, he said. “But we all share the love for animals”, Maynard told the Associated Press in an email.
To kickstart the fund, Stones handed a $1,000 check to Cynthia Galvan, the director of marketing at the Gladys Porter Zoo.
“Originally we only had the railing you see behind me, but now we have what we call a secondary safety mesh”.
Thad Mayner, the director of the zoo, said the child wasn’t under attack, but was in danger.
Those taking part in the vigil say their goal is not to point fingers at the parents or the zoo, but to remember the life of Harambe, the endangered gorilla.
Vigil organizer Anthony Seta calls the lowland gorilla’s death “a senseless tragedy” and says the gathering is meant as a memorial to Harambe.
The boy was taken to hospital with “serious injuries”, WLWT5 reported, but was not named, and the hospital did not release details of his condition.
Since the gorilla’s death, the hashtag #JusticeForHarambe is trending on Twitter and a petition has been launched calling for “the parents to be held accountable for the lack of supervision and negligence that caused Harambe to lose his life”.
Zoo Knoxville wouldn’t comment on the decision to kill Harambe, but said protecting gorillas is important.
“I do think there’s a degree of responsibility they have to be held to”, said Villanueva, a 28-year-old mother of two children.
Maynard maintained that the exhibit was safe and the zoo was not negligent.
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The boy’s parents had not been charged yet but local police said charges may eventually be laid, however it’s unclear if the zoo will face charges.
