Did the Cincinnati Zoo do the right thing in killing a gorilla to save a boy?
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This story has been corrected to show the boy is 3, not 4.
Celebrity and comedian Ricky Gervais has joined in the thong of criticism directed at the Cincinnati Zoo, whose staff killed a silverback gorilla to save a boy who had fallen into the animal’s enclosure.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says the Cincinnati Zoo had little choice but to kill a 17-year-old gorilla after a boy got into its exhibit.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums, an accrediting agency, also announced that it was investigating the Harambe episode.
(AP Photo/John Minchillo). Thane Maynard, director of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, speaks during a news conference, Monday, May 30, 2016, in Cincinnati.
He claims that, Harambe was a fully grown gorills who had the potential to crush a whole coconut with one hand, so there was no doubt that the boy was in danger. The boy was treated at a hospital and released that same day.
The director said the zoo remains safe for its some 1.6 million annual visitors, but a review is underway for possible improvements.
A federal inspector warned the Cincinnati Zoo that the public could have been “at great risk” if two polar bears that escaped a behind-the-scenes holding area in March had gained outside access.
“People can shout at the parents and people can shout at the zoo”, Seta said.
The letter from Michael A. Budkie, executive director of Stop Animal Exploitation Now, alleges the Harambe tragedy occurred because the zoo, “maintained an enclosure that violated the Animal Welfare Act”, according to the letter obtained by CNN.
Maynard said zoo visitors have been leaving flowers at the exhibit and asking how they could support gorilla conservation.
“This is very sad and unfortunate”, she said. “Not everyone shares the same opinion and that’s OK”.
About the same time as she made her comments, a Facebook group called Justice for Harambe was set up.
Harambe was sent to Cincinnati less than two years ago in hopes he would eventually breed with females there.
“I started receiving a bunch of friend requests on Saturday”, Michelle Gregg, who (unlike the other Michelle Gregg) has never been to the Cincinnati Zoo, told Complex Tuesday. A separate online petition seeks to hold the parents of the child accountable.
Cincinnati police said over the weekend that no charges were planned.
Authorities have said the boy’s mother was with the child at the time he slipped past a fence and tumbled into the moat.
Jack Hanna, host of “Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild”, said the zoo made the right call by shooting the gorilla, telling WBNS-TV: “I’ll bet my life on this, that child would not be here today”.
Even animal expert Jack Hanna entered the fray.
It was the first time the team had to kill an animal since the zoo opened in 1875. The director said expansion plans announced for the exhibit earlier this year would proceed as scheduled.
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Maynard said the decision to kill the gorilla was the right one. “You have human life, you have animal life”.
