Is "Harambe" the next "Cecil"?

[Mr. 16 gauge]

For those who may not know, this past Saturday (5/28), a 4 year old child breached the security fence and fell into the moat at the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati zoo. A 17 year old male gorilla, named "Harambe", went after the child. There is video on line of the gorilla running, dragging the child by its legs and arms through the moat. Authorities at the zoo decided to shoot the animal (an endangered species) in order to save the child. A sad situation all the way around.

As you might imagine, the animal rights Nazis, esp, PETA, have crawled out from under their rocks.....never let a good tragedy go unexploited!!!

Peta is condemning zoos, what the child's mother charged with neglect, and the diatribe from some of these morons is beyond stupid.

"These animals should be in their natural environment, not in zoos where they are exploited!!!!" (Um, but the reason that they are in zoos in the first place, and endangered, is due to loss of habitat & poaching. Do you really think he'd have been better off being shot by a poacher than a zoo official?)

"The mother should be charged with child endangerment!!! .....as well as causing the death of an endangered species!!!!" (Um.....NO ONE making these ridiculous comments was present; you don't know what else was going on to distract the mom, and if any of you are parents out there, you know just how fast and agile a 4 year old can be. In addition, what will charging the mother accomplish?)

"The child was being held by the gorilla.....he wasn't causing it any harm" (Well, I don't know what video YOU were watching, but the one I saw showed he gorilla standing in the water in the moat, and then grabbing the child by the foot/leg and RUNNING ......dragging the child behind him. He stopped briefly, then grabbed the child by the arm and RAN to the opposite end of the moat, again dragging the child through the water. I guess "technically", he was being "held".....but it's not the warm, tender embrace that PETA would have you believe!)

"They should have tranquilized the gorilla to rescue the child!" (The authorities at the zoo stated....REPEATEDLY....that the animal was acting aggressively towards the child, and that the tranquilizer gun would have taken too long to work. But I guess PETA has more knowledge of primate behavior than zoo directors and handlers who have gone to school & have countless hours of experience with these animals).

Next will come the pleas to "help the victims" (not those that were injured, but the gorillas).....cash, check, or credit card.

JUSTICE FOR HARAMBE!!!!! (what a crock!). I wish people would look deeper into the animal rights movement and see just how wacked they are. I bet if they tried to ban ownership of dogs/cats (which they are against), people would think twice about donating to their phony "causes".

O.K., I'm done ranting...........time to go take some more Inderal!!

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

 

[Hank2211]

Perhaps PETA would like to offer the other gorillas in the enclosure some grief counselling? PTSD assistance?

Having said that, two thoughts occur to me.

First, the zoo needs to take a serious look at the design of its exhibits, if a four year old can with apparent relative ease get into one.

Second, the mother - who I understand had other children with her - should not be anywhere near danger if she is unable to keep an eye on and control over all of her children. I have three of my own, and having all of them would not have been accepted by my wife as an excuse if one wandered into traffic and was hurt or killed.

It is unfortunate that the gorilla had to be killed. The fact that there was no other choice doesn't make it any more palatable.

 

[Pheroze]

This is a really tragedy. I don't know about the event. However, regarding the animal rights outrage, I am convinced that a lot of the animal rights movement is a fraud. They use pure emotion to generate pure cash. And where does it go? It's a money making machine.

 

[Code4]

Tranquilising or attempting to snatch the child could have provoked the Gorilla, so shooting was a last resort action. The enclosure was not secure enough to protect animals and people alike. A tragedy.

 

[Royal27]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/30/opinions/gorilla-zoo-death-dont-judge-mel-robbins/index.html

 

[Buckdog]

hey guys i live in cincinnati and took my kids and now grandkids to that ZOO and exhibit many times it is very secure for that kid to get into the gorilla enclosure took some doing and a worthless,. stupid, useless mother who's ass should be fined at the very least if not charged with child endangerment for not keeping control or even giving a shit about what her brat was doing! Now PETA is on a rampage and the zoo is being crucified and will cost us zoo members big dollars, you watch the dead beat mom will sue the zoo next!
Morons rule this world and ruin it for the rest of us!
So sorry for my rant.

 

[caddman]

Bad day for the gorilla. Can you imagine the lawsuit if the keepers would have elected to tranquilize the ape and the child got injured somehow? Very infortunate to lose a mountain gorilla in any event. Perhaps the enclosure design needs a review.

 

[CAustin]

There will no doubt be litigation stemming from this. But the zoo folks did the right thing. You don't drug a four hundred pound great ape when he is dragging a child through water! Sorry the gorilla had to be put down but the choices were not good.
I remember several years ago another child fell into a gorilla exhibit but in that case an older female actually went and sat by the child stroking it until zoo keepers came for him. She was not aggressive but seemed to understand that the child was hurt. In that case she also kept other gorillas from approaching.
In the current video we can she the male is not happy.

 

[sestoppelman]

The video is sort of amazing. At one point we see the gorilla stand the little guy up and he just looks at him. Then off he goes again, running thru the water dragging the kid. There is no way to know what was inside Harambe's head, as he is pretty clearly excited if not agitated, unpredictable. I don't see how they had much choice but to shoot him sad as that is.

 

[Excessexpress]

It's a very unfortunate situation all around.

Most parents have had their kids disappear from their sight at a moment's notice, having others to keep an eye on as well would test most of us.

The staff understood their gorilla better than anybody else, having to take that action would have broken their heart but they knew it was the only viable option.

 

[Eddie P]

The agitation was probably caused by all the idiots screaming while they videod it.

If everyone had backed off things may have ended differently

 

[Bullthrower338]

I'm sure this is a Ferguson joke! Lol. But I'm sure this has crossed some people's mind.

 

[BWH]

Yeah drugging would have taken too long.... Plus it would have only taken an angry gorilla a split second to snap his neck. Won't be long before here #gorillaslivesmatter

 

[Eddie P]

Copenhagen zoo have had success with rubber bullets against polar bears, I wonder how gorillas respond to blunt trauma less than lethal options.

I'd imagine they just get more pissed off, but I don't know.

 

[spike.t]

Is "Harambe" the next "Cecil"?
from what i read in the uk daily mail paper on the plane coming back today i think quite possibly

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...witnesses-say-animal-acting-protectively.html

 

[BWH]

Well the gorilla was pretty chill until all the screaming & yelling. I got a feeling it was only going to go very badly in very short order. I think any additional trauma would have only created more of a $hit $how

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

 

[Bsto270]

Watching the video , my immediate thought was, male gorilla, young male intruder, definitely not a "nurturing" touch. I am no primate expert, but if a dart hit him, he suddenly feels pain, what happens in the few minutes it takes for the drugs to kick in? He can't tell where the pain came from except this small creature. What sort of reaction would that have given? I'm sure not a good one. There were some crappy circumstances here, but I can't see any way it could have ended differently. People don't seem to recognize zoo animals are still basically wild animals. Just like the incident a few years back when the kid fell into the African wild dog display at the Pittsburgh Zoo. http://abcnews.go.com/US/boy-dead-mauling-pittsburgh-zoo/story?id=17639547

 

[Eddie P]

Even when anaesthetising a human who is calm and compliant in a nice cosy operating room it's not always straight forward.

I've dodged fists and feet. And that was a 70 year old lady.

So to try it with an adrenaline pumped big guy like that.... rather not my name on the prescription.