Tribute to gorilla. Fury at parents expressed online

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3615099/Outrage-directed-parents-Harambe-gorilla-s-senseless-death-four-year-old-son-fell-enclosure-led-zoo-officials-fatally-shoot-animal.html

Highest rated comment
Where were the parents ?? What were they doing ??

[MFM008]

1. They should throw the parents in

a hungry lions den.
I bet my ass they were on the phone, turned around and little Johnny was crawling in
the gorilla enclosure.
Doesn't anyone use fast acting tranquilizers anymore.

[laundry_queen]

4. How does a child even get in??

There should be NO way a child can get in any animal enclosure. Even IF a parent is not attentive. The zoo should not be relying on parents to be 100% attentive all the time. They are not. And kids are unpredictable. Even WITH attentive parents. My parents were very attentive and involved, (and in the days before cell phones!!) and my brother took off on them in the mall several times. Generally he was well behaved, but he had a short attention span and was impulsive (he did diagnosed with Adhd when he was older, but it was 'mild') and if something caught his attention, off he went. Obviously my parents took precautions after the first 2 times, but it still required constant vigilance. I hate to think if we'd have been at the zoo and he decided he wanted to be in the water too, my parents would have been the parents being skewered. Sometimes it's just the child too, my oldest took off a lot, but she was my oldest, so I just would keep her in the stroller. My next 3 kids were like ducklings, so I never had to worry. If my first child would've been my 4th, and my attention would've been divided, it may have been an issue.

And it was mentioned that tranquilizers don't work fast enough. With the child very close to him, the gorilla may have reacted in a way that could have killed the child. I saw the video...that boy's body was just being whipped around like a rag doll. Yes, the parents should have been paying attention (it sounds like they were trying, but had many kids with them) but there really shouldn't be an easy way for a 4 year old child to crawl into an enclosure in a few seconds. The zoo bears some responsibility here. They should do it to protect the animals, if they are as serious about it as they claim to be.

[Ms. Toad]

11. In the only video I found,

Harambe was being very gentle with the boy. The boy was sitting in the water, Harambe walked over and stood near him as the boy reached out and touched his arms. Harambe them appeared to help the boy stand by the seat of his pants, stabilize him, and then the video cut away.

There may well be more video I didn't see. But from what I saw, although it was potentially dangerous if a tranquilizer hit him and Harambe attributed the pain to the child and acted in response before the tranquilizer took effect - the same would be true if they had missed using the gun, or it did not immediately kill him - or worse if Harambe moved suddenly and put the boy in the line of fire. It seems to me that watching with both euthanasia and tranquilizer ready for an opportunity that would permit a slight time delay then using the tranquilizer would have been a better option - and safer for both Harambe and the child.

[laundry_queen]

12. Well there is more video

they played it on CBC here in Canada. The gorilla grabbed the child's leg, pulled him harshly (so hard I thought he may have dislocated something) then dragged the boy by the foot, underwater, at a tremendous speed. i'm sure he didn't mean to harm the child, but it's clear that his actions could've killed the boy.

And you are right, if they would have missed with the gun it could've been bad too, they were just doing what they could with a shitty situation. They weighed their options, and I see their point. From what I understand they did wait for some time but the gorilla kept the boy very close so no opportunity.

[Ms. Toad]

13. Thanks.

As I said - Harambe was being very gentle in the only video I found. There may well be more I can't find.

[braddy]

6. They said that was too risky since the child was already in hand and reactions could not be certain.

[Downwinder]

2. Too quick to kill.

Story of out time.

[malaise]

3. My thoughts exactly

They could have tranquilized the gorilla - why did they kill him?

Humans suck - we capture animals, put them on display for profit and then kill them when we fugg up.

[laundry_queen]

5. On TV they said

they considered tranquilizing him, but he was keeping the boy really close to him, and tranquilizers take a few seconds to take effect, and when they are hit with the dart it hurts, so it would agitate him further. So with the boy so close by, a very agitated, hurt, possibly disoriented gorilla could've been even more of a danger to the child. If you watch the video, he was already whipping around the boy like he was a rag doll.

And I agree with your second sentence. I don't take my kids to the zoo. I disagree with them.

[malaise]

7. I saw a clip a few minutes ago

Didn't hear the tranquilizing details - thanks

I haven't been to a zoo since the early 70s when it hit me that the animals were our prisoners.

[oberliner]

9. Take a trip to a factory farm some day

That will really make you think.

[liberal_at_heart]

10. That is a good point. Even just falling on the boy could have injured or killed him.

I agree in theory with the mission of zoos, but I think many have become corrupt and greedy. We need to preserve species that we are driving into extinction and we need to educate the public, but many zoos have bad practices that are not in the best interest of the animals but are in the best financial interest of those running the zoo.

[X_Digger]

14. Tranquilizer darts don't work like the boob tube and movies make them seem.

Any dose of something that could stop an animal that fast would be fatal.

Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom edited the tape between when Jim shot the animal in the ass and when the researchers tagged the critter.

What you don't see is the five minutes of running like you've been shot in the ass (which you totally have), then five to ten minutes of stumbling around like you've had a five martini lunch, and then the two to three minutes of settling down to sleep.

[oberliner]

8. I wonder if all those people are vegetarians

Because if not, they are a part of a system that tortures and kills hundreds of millions of animals every single day.

[flvegan]

15. So are vegetarians.

Shaming for empathy is something that nobody should ever do. Let enlightenment happen.

Personally, I'm trying to be better at that.