Normally it would be nice for people to still be honoring a gorilla three months after his death.
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Cecil’s death, at the hands of U.S. dentist Walter Palmer, sparked a global outcry and raised uncomfortable questions about the ethics of hunting.
The Cincinnati Zoo, where Harambe the gorilla was shot dead earlier this year after a child fell into his enclosure, is “not amused” by the many memes of the massive animal circulating online. And while some have been good-natured, others (such a jokey “Harambe for President” campaigns), have not been appreciated by those at the zoo who were forced to make that hard decision.
One thing that the pair do have in common is they live on in a special place in our hearts.
Take our quiz below to find out. The zoo released a statement following the shooting saying that doing so would have placed the child in more danger, with the zoo’s director Thane Maynard saying: “The child was being dragged around”. Our zoo family is still healing, and the constant mention of Harambe makes moving forward more hard for us. Anonline petition calling for a law to enact “legal consequences when an endangered animal is harmed or killed due to the negligence of visitors” had about 217,000 signatures on Monday, while another petition called Justice for Harambe calling for an investigation of the family received more than half a million signatures.
“So if we want to celebrate the life of Harambe, as a symbolic gesture towards better NHP-Human relations, what is wrong with that?”
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Maynard is no doubt also referring to the comments the zoo’s Twitter posts typically receive.
