In a tragic incident at Cincinnati in the United States, a silverback gorilla had to be killed after a four-year-old boy slipped through the barrier of its enclosure and fell into the moat.
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The zoo’s unsafe animal response team made a decision to kill the gorilla instead of tranquilize it because it was agitated and could have acted unpredictably while the tranquilizer took effect, the zoo said.
Animal rights activists have gathered at the Cincinnati Zoo for a vigil in remembrance of a gorilla who was fatally shot to protect a 4-year-old boy who had fallen into its exhibit. “It could have been very bad”, Maynard said.
He said tranquilising the gorilla wouldn’t have knocked it out immediately, leaving the boy in danger.
The child was taken to hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, media quoted the police as saying.
His family said in a statement on Sunday that the boy was home and doing fine.
The zoo keepers considered the situation as life threatening, when the lowland gorilla carried the boy around its habitat for 10 minutes, Cincinnati Zoo Director Thane Maynard said during a press briefing.
Zoo visitor Kimberly Ann Perkins O’Connor heard the boy jokingly told his mother about going into the water below.
The TV personality praised Harambe, a “glorious” critically-endangered 17-year-old primate, and castigated zoo-keepers’ “failure” to make barriers secure for leading to his death.
More than ten minutes after the boy fell into the enclosure, the zoo’s risky animal response team killed the endangered gorilla. Zoo officials say the boy fell about 10 feet into a moat where one the gorillas stood over the youngster.
But critics of the zoo’s decision to kill the gorilla came piling in, and were led by Morgan.
The mother of a four-year-old boy who fell 12 feet into a gorilla enclosure at a USA zoo has hit out at critics – saying “accidents happen”.
Two other gorillas in the exhibit were called back inside by zoo staff, and Harambe was shot dead. In their view, the gorilla’s death could have easily been avoided had the child’s parents prevented the boy from falling into the pen. “We know that this was a very hard decision for them, and that they are grieving the loss of their gorilla”.
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“Harambe was a good guy”.
