The Great Apes

[Tshokwane]

As usual, it's animals who pay the price of the human negligence...

Gorilla shot dead after 3-year-old falls into enclosure at Cincinnati Zoo:
A child was rescued and seriously injured after falling into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo Saturday, Cincinnati police and fire departments confirm.


The 3-year-old has been taken to the hospital. 

The 400-pound gorilla, 17-year-old Harambe, was shot and killed by the zoo's dangerous animal response team about 10 minutes after the boy first made it into the enclosure.

Zoo director Thayne Maynard said that the gorilla picked the boy up and dragged him around.

"It's a sad day all around," Maynard said. "The right choice was made. It was a difficult choice ... They made a tough choice and they made the right choice. Because they saved that little boy's life; it could have been very bad."

Cincinnati police Lt. Steve Saunders said the child is about 3 years old and fell on Saturday afternoon. The child isn't believed to have life-threatening injuries.

Witnesses said they saw a woman crying and that the child was conscious during the rescue.

Police were dispatched to the zoo at around 4 p.m.

The gorilla was not tranquilized because, when the animal is agitated, Maynard said, the tranquilizer may not take effect right away.

That kid's parents should be ashamed, because in comparison, no gorilla mother would let his toddler go on and be everywhere and, more importantly, no Silverback dad would even take his sight off his kids.

This is a photo of Harambe. Pic by Jeff McCurry.

*This image is copyright of its original author

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