Saturday, June 04, 2016

I Would Have Shot the Parents Too

The tragic death of Harambe the gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo is the direct result of negligence by the parents of the child who ended up in the gorilla enclosure.

Yes accidents happen. Small children do things and go places they are not supposed to. But any good parent would have rounded up their child before they even thought of getting close enough to the gorilla enclosure to fall in.
As sad as I am about the death of the gorilla I feel the Zoo had no other choice. A tranquilizer dart wouldn't work fast enough on an animal that large. Entering the enclosure, even a trained professional could have frightened the animal.
They did what they could to do save the child's life. Now if they could only do something about his parents.

1 comment:

Damino said...

I'm sad that the gorilla had to lose its life, but agree that the zoo had no choice. I am as big an animal lover as you'll find, but if an animal was about to fatally injure my daughter, I'd kill it without blinking an eye.

I think you're being a little too harsh on the parents. Before I had a child I would've thought they were massively negligent if not criminally reckless, but as you noted, little kids can and do put themselves in harm's way very quickly. I don't think they are the world's greatest parents from the facts as I know them, but I also don't think they should be shot.