In Gorilla's Death, Critics Blame Mother, Cincinnati Zoo

[avebury]

68. The mother 100% at fault.

The boy kept saying that he wanted to go play with the gorilla. A smart parent would have either a) hold onto the boy or b) move the family onto a different exhibit thus removing the boy from temptation. A 4 year old cannot be trusted to have impulse control. What did the mother do? She turned away and focused on the other children. Despite being forewarned by the child of his intentions, the mother failed to take appropriate action which would have prevented the tragedy.

In the video, it appears that what might have agitated the gorilla was the noise (yelling and screaming) from the people. He pulled the boy to the far end away from the people. It appeared that the gorilla was actually trying to protect the child.

Result, child injured in fall and an endangered gorilla was killed.

Had the mother made a statement about how horrible she felt about the whole thing, she should have kept tighter control over her son, her son's injuries and the death of the gorilla, it might have gone a long way towards tamping down the massive anger that has come out against the mother. From a PR standpoint the family really screwed up. And believe it or not, she works at a child daycare. The failure of the other to admit to culpability in what happened has played a huge role in public anger.

Personally I am fed up with parents who exhibit a lack of common sense that results in injuries to their child or others playing the sympathy card and getting away with it with no consequences. There are some supporters who are trying to blame the child's poor decision making. For crying out loud, the kid is 4 years old.