Recently, two lions at Santiago zoo were senselessly killed to save a
suicidal man. However, another zoo creature needs to be sacrificed for
the life of a four-year-old boy who fell into a moat inside a gorilla
exhibit.
An endangered 400-pound western lowland gorilla named Harambe, who just turned 17, was shot dead by Cincinnati Zoo officials.
The incident led to the killing of the gorilla after the kid fell 10
to 12 feet into the enclosure and was dragged by the silverback ape for
about 10 minutes. However, witnesses claimed that Harambe was not
hurting the boy but simply trying to protect him.
According to the investigators, they believe the young lad crawled through a railing barrier and fell into the gorilla exhibit’s moat.
Kim O’Connor, one of the witnesses said that, “The small child said
he wanted to get in the water before the incident, to which the mother,
who was also watching several other children, replied: ‘No, you’re not,
no, you’re not.”
Zoo director Thane Maynard said the zoo’s dangerous animal response
team assessed that the boy was in “a life-threatening situation” and
that they needed to put down the 400-pound-plus male gorilla.
According to him, the gorilla did not appear to be attacking the
child, but he called it ‘an extremely strong’ animal in an agitated
situation.
He said:
You’re talking about an animal that’s over 400 pounds and extremely strong. So no, the child wasn’t under attack but all sorts of things could happen in a situation like that. He certainly was at risk.They made a tough choice and they made the right choice because they saved that little boy’s life. It could have been very bad.
He also said it was the first time that the team had killed a zoo
animal in such an emergency situation, and he called it “a very sad day”
at the zoo. The lowland gorilla is an endangered species.
We are all devastated that this tragic accident resulted in the death of a critically-endangered gorilla. This is a huge loss for the zoo family and the gorilla population worldwide.
The little kid spent 10 minutes with the gorilla before the zoo’s
animal response team fired the final shot killing the endangered
creature.
While many believed that Harambe should have been tranquilized rather
than killed, animal expert has said the zoo had little choice but to
kill the gorilla rather than sedate it.
Dr Sharon Redrobe, chief executive of Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire,
said the loss of Harambe was ‘tragic’. She also revealed why the zoo
executed the Harambe in the first place.
The zoo keepers had a life and death situation on their hands and they would have known the behavior of that animal better than anyone. Tranquilizing the gorilla with a dart just simply wouldn’t have worked in this situation. It would have taken up to 10 minutes to take affect and the animal may have become violent which would have had catastrophic consequences.
On the other hand, animal lovers expressed their outrage on social
media declaring the western lowland gorilla’s life was unnecessarily
taken.
More than 1,000 have already joined the Facebook group Justice for Harambe.
Some have blame the parents for neglecting their child while others have come to their defense.
One Twitter user wrote: ‘So a beautiful, innocent gorilla has to die
because neglectful parents can’t control their kids? Mankind sucks #Harambe #CincinnatiZoo’
Another user Chris Dasauchoit tweeted: ‘Beautiful animals sadly
paying for utter human stupidity and negligence with their lives.
#Harambe #CincinnatiZoo.’
0 comments:
Post a Comment