Gorilla story

[crazyphil]

Apparantly the little boy crawled into the gorilla's pen.
The ZOO keepers killed the gorilla because they believed the
boy's life was in danger.
Over 100,000 folks have signed a petition chastizing the
Zoo keepers for "wrongful death".
Many other folks are blaming the mother for negligence.
If the gorilla wanted to kill the little boy he had plenty of time.
He may have just wanted to protect the boy. Too risky to wait
and see.
Who is responsible? Who is at fault? Least of all the gorilla,
but he paid the price.
I believe the mother is partly to blame for negligence. I believe
the Zoo is responsible for the child being able to get in to the
enclosure.
I believe the Zoo keepers did what they had to do.
What do you all think?

 

[ralph7]

I think the gorilla was a better parent than the kid's mom.

 

[JcMack]

The boy's mother is a moron. They should have hung a string of bananas around her neck and threw her in the pit as a distraction. I hope the Zoo sends her a bill for a Lowland Gorilla and animal activists hound her to death.

 

[jack the toad]

I've heard numerous news accounts of this but only 2 official responses.
One was by well-known zoologist, Jack Hanna and the other by an official of the zoo. Both stated that euthanizing the gorilla was the safest way to guarantee the boy's safety and from that I tend to agree. Sad though.
I guess my question is pretty much the same as others; are enclosures there adequate but more so, where was the boy's mother?
ETA:
And not to make light of an otherwise tragic situation, but is anyone else curious what gun/caliber the zoo used?
I'm assuming they have a dedicated marksman on staff???

 

[jimmyj]

Gorilla Story

I've heard numerous news accounts of this but only 2 official responses.
One was by well-known zoologist, Jack Hanna and the other by an official of the zoo. Both stated that euthanizing the gorilla was the safest way to guarantee the boy's safety and from that I tend to agree. Sad though.
I guess my question is pretty much the same as others; are enclosures there adequate but more so, where was the boy's mother?

The Mother most likely was on her cell phone giving a minute by minute account of what she was doing or involved in playing a game on her electronic game box

 

[Jessie]

They had to do what they had to do. If things went bad for that kid it would have happened in a second or less.
What bothers me is most of the people yelling the loudest probably had no problem watching the gorilla living a caged life for their entertainment.
There's plenty of time to lay blame. No accident or incident is complete anymore unless someone is blamed for something.
Except in the political arena.

 

[jack the toad]

The Mother most likely was on her cell phone giving a minute by minute account of what she was doing or involved in playing a game on her electronic game box

If that's the case, IMO, the mother needs negligence or child endangerment charges filed on her... along with a civil suit filed for damages (costs of the gorilla and rescue, etc)

 

[islamoradamark]

the parents should be held accountable. i find it hard to believe the kid fell or wondered inside a gorilla exhibit. That exhibit has been there for years with no problems. The gorilla was holding the kids hand, cause he cared maybe the parents should have done the same. It reminds me of a case where parents left a kid in a hot car. Whos fault is that? Sorry when you take on the part of being a parent you are the one responsible for you child.

 

[keith44spl]

Regardless of what errors took place on any and everyone's part,

A child's life/safety trumps an animal's life....

Everyday in my book.



* wild animals, belong in the wild.
.

 

[Aden67]

First, how in the world did the kid get into the enclosure.? Second, I have two small kids and I never take my eyes off them...especially at a zoo. Then again, I don't have a smart phone and am not walking around with it in my face 24/7. My last zoo visit was last summer at the Omaha Henry Dorley Zoo. I was amazed how some parents allowed their kids to behave. At one point, my 8-year old stopped me and told me how bad the kids around us were behaving.

Sad deal about having to put the gorilla down...

 

[Tom S.]

The zoo is at fault for having an enclosure a three year old can get into.

The mother is at fault for not watching her three year old child.

The only one not at fault is the gorilla.

Tranquilizers would have been nice, but they aren't fast acting enough to have insured the child wouldn't be hurt. It's unfortunate, but there was no other alternative.


WARNING! Thread diversion!!
I recently read a book about the history of England. In a portion, they described the founding of the London Zoo by one of the Kings of England. Admission was a set cost, or you could bring a dog, cat or other animal to feed to the animals.

 

[boykinlp]

I had heard that the mother had a "few" kids that were running around and this child had already told her he wanted to go in the exhibit.

I watched a youtube video of the incident. I personally think that the gorilla was trying to protect the child, was frightened by all the yelling that the crowd was doing, and was trying to take him to a safe place away from the crowd. Being an extremely powerful animal, he did not do it gingerly. Granted, nobody knows for sure, and if it was my child, I would not want any chances taken.

If you look on youtube, there is another video from a few years back where a child fell in a gorilla exhibit. The child was knocked out from the fall. A family of gorillas was in there with the child. They male gorilla inspected the child and when the mother and child gorillas came over, he seemed to get between the child and them. I don't remember as many people in the crowd yelling at the gorillas. These gorillas left the area when called and the child was rescued. Happy ending all around.

Here is the video:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLDf01oYSHI[/ame]

I really have mixed feelings about what happened in Cincinnati, but the mother did a terrible job of parenting IMHO!

 

[tcon]

Never thought about it until this happened, but I guess it's safe to assume that there are scoped rifles chambered for big-game cartridges hanging in behind-the-scenes areas like fire-extinguishers at a paper factory.

And it must be assumed that on any shift, there are people who are trained on the firearm's use. Zoos are big which would require multiple people qualified to hit targets with a rifle.

Would be interesting to see the policy, training methods, what they use and how they store it.

 

[arjay]

They did what they had to do,all the noise is silly.A hyper kid can get into trouble in an instant and that one did.Stuff happens.

 

[jack the toad]

A hyper kid can get into trouble in an instant and that one did.

Absolutely, most any kid can. But where was mom... or dad, guardian, etc?
Since I'm not a social media type, (facebook is the devil ) is the mother saying anything as to why this happened or is she too busy talking to her lawyer about filing suit against the zoo for failing to provide proper safety for her son?

 

[Dennis The B]

From some news reports here, the mother was trying to keep her kids corralled, and this three-year-old, like many of his age, got loose. Remember, kids are natural explorers,and they can get into many things designed by people to keep them out. There's no evidence she was talking on a cell phone, or otherwise distracted.

People are humanizing the gorilla, especially by giving it a name. Gorillas are not human; they only resemble our concepts of prehistoric ape-people. They have no concept of rights, and can't be accorded rights as we do with other humans.

The people at the zoo responded with a team that was assembled for that purpose. They made a decision quickly which dealt with the imminent threat. Zoos all over the country have similar teams just for incidents like this.

The Detroit Zoo has a similar unit. They periodically train at our club. Their weapon of choice is a rifle chambered in .375 H&H Magnum.

If you think that the team had plenty of time, you only need to look at this video to see how fast a wild animal can be on you.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEIGqD80N6U[/ame]

PS - My parents had four kids. Even when watching us directly, we could get into more messes faster than anyone could conceive.

 

[bushmaster1313]

The calm response of zoo personnel in a panic situation is an example of make a decision and follow through.

I have no doubt that the person who made the decision and the person who made the shot believed they were doing the right thing

 

[Muss Muggins]

The Mother most likely was on her cell phone giving a minute by minute account of what she was doing or involved in playing a game on her electronic game box

At least one of the news accounts I read mentioned that the mother was watching several children that day . . .

 

[Kronos]

My words on the whole thing:

Who-friggin'-cares?

Stuff happens,people don't watch their kids (I've had the notion more then once to find some duct tape),a wild animal isn't something you trust no matter what Disney has told you.

Big'ol meh all around.

 

[Ron M.]

Lawsuit on behalf of the kid's parents in three, two, one....any takers?