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.
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