160,000 people have signed a petition demanding that police investigate the mother of a 4-year-old child for negligence that led to her child falling into a gorilla enclosure, forcing zoo staff to shoot and kill the 17-year-old gorilla.
A video circulating on social media shows a bizarre accident where a 4-year-old child fell into a gorilla enclosure. To ensure the child’s safety, zoo staff had to shoot the gorilla. Immediately afterward, over 160,000 people signed a petition demanding that police investigate the child’s mother, who was negligent in allowing her child to be in such a dangerous situation. In the petition, the parents stated: “We, the undersigned, want parents to be held accountable for their negligent and unsupervised actions that took the life of Harambe the gorilla.” Animal rights activists called the gorilla’s death a “senseless tragedy.”
The incident occurred on May 30th at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio, USA. A 4-year-old boy climbed over a protective railing and fell 3 meters into the enclosure of a 17-year-old male monkey named Harambee. Although the monkey did not harm the boy, it grabbed his leg and dragged him around the enclosure for about 10 minutes. Witnesses said that the boy’s screams and the cries of onlookers seemed to frighten the monkey, but it did not hurt the child.
Zoo staff decided to shoot the monkey to save the boy’s life. They said the incident happened too quickly and there was no time to wait if they shot the monkey with a tranquilizer because it was already agitated. Animal experts believe that tranquilizers would have a slower effect and would further agitate the monkey.
After being removed from the enclosure, the boy was taken to the hospital for examination, but he only suffered a few minor scratches and has recovered. The boy’s mother, Michelle Gregg, asked people not to judge her for what happened, and the family expressed their condolences to the zoo.
According to zoo director Thane Mayard, this was the first time he and his colleagues had to decide to shoot the animal. “Looking back, if similar situations occurred, we would still have to make the decision to shoot the animal because it was clearly agitated and disoriented,” Mayard said. Harambe is a species of flat-headed gorilla that lives in the plains of Western countries and is listed as endangered.
