Seriously?
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Gorilla killed after dragging child at Cincinnati Zoo
- Thread starter alfredofroylan
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Seriously?
AgentOtaku
Member
fucking utterly awful story and just thinking about the video gives me complete dread
I'm a father of two myself
A Link to the Past
Banned
It's a really sad story. Kid got into a bad situation because he didn't understand the gravity of it and the gorilla was probably making an effort to protect him (while being oblivious to the risk he was placing on the child). Parents should have done better, and the zoo should have done better. No blame should be placed on either the child or the gorilla.
rokkerkory
Member
So sad hearing shit like this
KeyBladerXIII
Member
It sucks, but it was a fucking silverback, the boy would've been torn apart.
I get that parents can't be 100% focused on their kid all the time, but if you know your child is a wanderer and you are going somewhere where that wandering can be dangerous, either laser-focus your attention as best you can or put the kid on a harness.
What kind of enclosure were these gorillas in? Is it one of those fucking stupid pits where everybody looks at them from above? Those are the worst. My zoo has the enclosure on equal level with the people and has those thick windows to look through where there is zero possibility of anyone getting in unless they're Spiderman.
I get that parents can't be 100% focused on their kid all the time, but if you know your child is a wanderer and you are going somewhere where that wandering can be dangerous, either laser-focus your attention as best you can or put the kid on a harness.
What kind of enclosure were these gorillas in? Is it one of those fucking stupid pits where everybody looks at them from above? Those are the worst. My zoo has the enclosure on equal level with the people and has those thick windows to look through where there is zero possibility of anyone getting in unless they're Spiderman.
Jon Carter
Member
I hope it's a simple case of shit happening to otherwise good parents, as I would assume losing your kids in crowded places happens to most parents at some point. I hope they learn a lesson though as the poor animal did nothing wrong on purpose and it's really tragic that he had to be killed. Let's keep in mind that there aren't seven billion gorillas on this planet.
What a sad story.
A few things stuck out to me. I know the video is edited, but if that gorilla felt threatened by the kid, he would have killed it in seconds. They don't tend to hesitate when they think there's danger, and act aggressively and decisively. This gorilla didn't seem agitated by the kid, and seemed like he was looking out for it, even if he was rough (I've seen the nature documentaries, and sometimes animals look like their handling their offspring really hard). I'm sure the bulk of the kids injuries were from the fall, but yeah, being dragged to another spot doesn't hurt. Ultimately, it just doesn't seem like the gorilla was going to kill the kid.
Second thing that stood out; what the flying fuck were the parents doing? No, it's not an excuse that zoos are crowded and busy. When I was younger, trips to zoos or amusement parks were coordinated with an iron grip. If you weren't with mom, then you were with another adult or older sibling/cousin. At 4 years old, you're still practically a baby. There's no excuse for the parent(s) to not be watching their child like a hawk. It's one of those things where you have to be more than unusually observant when you're in a large, crowded place like a zoo, amusement park, or museum. Maybe it's because I grew up with a large family, a large, overprotective family, and I've been on the receiving end of having to be watched over, and being on the watchdog end of blooming out for little nieces, nephews, and cousins. Yes, I understand that it's easy for a kid to elude your watchful eye, but I'm sorry, zoos and amusement parks are places where you have to be more than vigilant. The kid didn't warp through the barrier. It had to climb under the thing first. What were the parents doing while their kid was doing this? When I was that young, there wasn't a time I wasn't holding my mom's or sister's hand when we were at the zoo.
I blame the parents for this. The zoo did what it had to do, but they aren't blameless either. In this day and age, zoo enclosures need better fail safes to keep people from bypassing enclosures. I get that tranquilizers don't act fast enough, so you'd think the zoos would go all out to ensure that the way they keep the visitors from interacting with animals is as safe as it can be.
This is such a tragic story. In glad the four year old is going to survive, though.
A few things stuck out to me. I know the video is edited, but if that gorilla felt threatened by the kid, he would have killed it in seconds. They don't tend to hesitate when they think there's danger, and act aggressively and decisively. This gorilla didn't seem agitated by the kid, and seemed like he was looking out for it, even if he was rough (I've seen the nature documentaries, and sometimes animals look like their handling their offspring really hard). I'm sure the bulk of the kids injuries were from the fall, but yeah, being dragged to another spot doesn't hurt. Ultimately, it just doesn't seem like the gorilla was going to kill the kid.
Second thing that stood out; what the flying fuck were the parents doing? No, it's not an excuse that zoos are crowded and busy. When I was younger, trips to zoos or amusement parks were coordinated with an iron grip. If you weren't with mom, then you were with another adult or older sibling/cousin. At 4 years old, you're still practically a baby. There's no excuse for the parent(s) to not be watching their child like a hawk. It's one of those things where you have to be more than unusually observant when you're in a large, crowded place like a zoo, amusement park, or museum. Maybe it's because I grew up with a large family, a large, overprotective family, and I've been on the receiving end of having to be watched over, and being on the watchdog end of blooming out for little nieces, nephews, and cousins. Yes, I understand that it's easy for a kid to elude your watchful eye, but I'm sorry, zoos and amusement parks are places where you have to be more than vigilant. The kid didn't warp through the barrier. It had to climb under the thing first. What were the parents doing while their kid was doing this? When I was that young, there wasn't a time I wasn't holding my mom's or sister's hand when we were at the zoo.
I blame the parents for this. The zoo did what it had to do, but they aren't blameless either. In this day and age, zoo enclosures need better fail safes to keep people from bypassing enclosures. I get that tranquilizers don't act fast enough, so you'd think the zoos would go all out to ensure that the way they keep the visitors from interacting with animals is as safe as it can be.
This is such a tragic story. In glad the four year old is going to survive, though.
SaganIsGOAT
Junior Member
Interesting ads on mobile while reading this
Jmanunknown
Member
This story is sad because this could have been avoided if their wasn't bad parenting involved. From the video of the incident their is another women who was their and this is what she said happened
GamingOblivion
Banned
You don't want those animals behind a cage.
I have a roommate with a Master's Degree in Primatology and thousands of hours of zoo experience. I showed him some of the responses in this thread and said y'all were a bunch of fools. It was not the fault of the zoo and telling them to close it down and sue the zoo is not the right idea. The parent's need to be supervising their 4 year old child.
EDIT: A few other things he told me:
"It can take an animal 15 minutes to succumb to a tranquilizer in a calm state, and an animal in an excited or agitated state may take longer. Dosages are tricky. An under-dose may not work at all, and an overdose can kill an animal (medical exams for gorillas are always a bit risky because of this, even in controlled conditions with a lot of planning). So, tranquilizing the gorilla may not have incapacitated him in a timely fashion."
"Gorillas and other highly intelligent animals are known to exhibit individual personalities. These personality traits, like humans, impact how Harambe would react to this new stimuli in his environment (a small child). You would have to ask the folks who interact with Harambe on a regular basis what his personality was like, and it is possible that his personality was a factor in the decision (I do not know).
Gorillas are not known to be overly aggressive, and in the past when a child fell into a gorilla enclosure, one of the gorillas protected the child from other gorillas while delivering it to the keeper door. Unfortunately, that did not happen in this instance.
I think we can all agree that we are glad that the child survived, it was a sad day for the staff at the Cincinnati Zoo (I send my condolences to all of those folks), and I am sure that the zoo will review their safety features to ensure a safe, educational, and fun experience for zoo goers in the future."
"I just watched a bit more of the footage, and folks report that Harambe seemed protective during that portion of the video. I wonder how the situation would have played out if the zoo visitors had not reacted (some folks say they were screaming). That may have also impacted Harambe's response to the situation."
No because then the parents wuld benefit from their negligence.
Me too. Kid screamed and the lady off camera was saying "mommy is right here. Mommy loves you." and I just started sobbing uncontrollably. (I'm a new parent)
Tranqing the gorilla was probably not the best idea. It wouldn't have just taken a dart and slumped instantly like in the movies, and the irritation from the shot could have caused it to act aggressively. The moment that kid fell in his life becomes more important (from a zoo policy standpoint). This is a shame and IMO the parents deserve 100% of the blame. Closing down zoos and seaworld only hurt researchers and education more than saving the animal's lives.
Triggerhappytel
Member
As a parent of a 3 year old who loves to run off, it happens more than you would think (I lost him at a motorway service station a few weeks ago for several minutes). I think the blame has to be on the zoo for not having a sealed off enclosure.
Jmanunknown
Member
You cannot blame the zoo for someones bad parenting. For 38 years they had no incidents and one day someones child who obviously does not listen to this particular parent and the parent who obviously did not pay close enough attention to the child who said they were gonna get in the water and did exactly what he said he was gonna do.
buttery fistful
Member
sucks that the gorilla was completely innocent in all of this but had to die all the same. i understand it had to be done, it just sucks it had to happen.
T
Transhuman
Unconfirmed Member
I can't imagine anything being more educative as being splashed by Shamu or seeing an imprisoned gorilla, and anyone who disagrees has never been splashed with the illuminating waters of Shamu's performance tank, or seen an imprisoned gorilla, up close and in person. These are profound encounters that nourish the human spirit.
I would love to check one of those out
I guess we should all go to Africa or the rainforest to see them live in their natural habitat? While it's certainly not the optimal way to see them, it is a pretty great experience to see the animals live and in the flesh. But continue on with your crusading.
You Are Viewtiful
Member
Have you been around 4 year old boys? Easier said than done.
Liamario
Banned
I'm very frustrated by the fact that there's only edited footage of the incident out there. Descriptions from witnesses are claiming the child was being tossed around and the gorilla was being violent. I'd like to see that for myself. Being violent for a human is not the same as being violent for a gorilla. How a gorilla treats baby gorillas would be more violent/rough than how humans treat their young.
I feel like showing the edited footage is very misleading and they probably don't want people making assessments themselves as to whether the zoo did the right or wrong thing.
I feel like showing the edited footage is very misleading and they probably don't want people making assessments themselves as to whether the zoo did the right or wrong thing.
Is this what open sociopathy looks like?
M0nochromatic
Member
If a kid is near a hazard, the parent either needs to know that the kid is smart enough to know how to behave around it, or if not, needs to always be in control of that child. Otherwise they risk harm to someone who isn't capable of being responsible for their own being.
That's not to say it's not understandable, no human is actually capable of devoting 100% of their mind and time to the well being of something so danger prone as a kid.
The Zoo hasn't had a history of kids falling into the enclosure, and the parents presumably do care about their kid. This was just an unfortunate occurance.
That's not to say it's not understandable, no human is actually capable of devoting 100% of their mind and time to the well being of something so danger prone as a kid.
The Zoo hasn't had a history of kids falling into the enclosure, and the parents presumably do care about their kid. This was just an unfortunate occurance.
thesuperfunk
Member
There's a slightly different edit in the BBC report that shows the gorilla initially moving the child from the corner of the enclosure ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36407643
T
Transhuman
Unconfirmed Member
I wouldn't crusade for an animal that shits in it's hand, I'm just trying to protect the public from the dangerous animals that live in the wild. When I was in my teens, my friend Trent and I went with our parents to the Melbourne Zoo in Australia. We were so excited to go, we had ice-cream and we saw the lions and live Gorrilaz. Just before we left for the day, my friend and I decided to visit The Butterfly House without our parents. Because we were late to the tour we missed the safety presentation, and when Trent went inside the butterflies could smell the sticky icecream all over his face and fingers and they started flying towards him. They lifted him off the ground and he fell into the enclosure, breaking both his legs while the butterflies swarmed over his body to drink the lipids in his blood. The other tourists got scared and tried to smash their way out, but the glass was too thick and their yelling only agitated the already bloodthirsty butterflies, who quickly flocked to them and drained their bodies like beautiful airborne piranhas. The other tourists and I only escaped because one of them was an amateur lepidopterist who had a butterfly catching net and was able to hold the butterflies at bay long enough for our tour guide to unlock the side door, but by that time more than half of our tour group had already been killed.
Liamario
Banned
I don't think the gorilla intended to kill the child, but based on the beginning of that video, he could potentially kill the child by mistake. Child was being dragged through the water like a doll. Drowning or even head injury was a real possibility.
Absoludacrous
Member
You clearly don't have kids.
Your kid says they're going to get in the water with the gorilla, you tell them no, and expect them not to. She probably didn't think her kid would ever in a million years actually do it, and after being distracted by her other young kids she had the misfortune of finding out that she was wrong.
It's a shitty situation, but acting like it's black and white and it's the result of bad parenting is venturing into internet mob territory. I really wish people would stop casting down judgment on shit they barely know anything about. Maybe that's asking too much on an internet forum though.
kitchenmotors
Banned
As someone who has worked with kids for 16 years, and been to the trips to the zoo many times with groups, this is clearly an issue with parenting. I see it all the time. People at the zoo don't have any clue how to control their kids. They run around unsupervised and it frustrates the hell out of me when I have no problem taking control of a group of children in an organized fashion, when people can't even control their own kids.
This woman also apparently had multiple children and couldn't control the one who fell. Railings are in place for a reason and she just assumed that was enough to keep her eye off the one child. Negligence, imo.
This woman also apparently had multiple children and couldn't control the one who fell. Railings are in place for a reason and she just assumed that was enough to keep her eye off the one child. Negligence, imo.
Absoludacrous
Member
In the time it takes to tranq a gorilla it could have killed the kid a dozen times over. Especially if it has a bad reaction to getting hit with the tranq gun.
based on the video, I kind of doubt that.
What is easier to procure in the US, a simple rifle with ammunition or things like tranquilizer guns and rubber bullets etc.
Just fucked that an endangered animal, one of humanity's closest genetic relatives, one being slaughtered for meat in Africa, is dead because people need to see theae animals in enclosures for some reason. How does a kid fall into the pen? If the only solution is the death of animals, they're probably better off in the wild.
In the grand scheme of the universe as well, that gorilla's life was just as miraculous as the childs. Something people have trouble reconciling because they think humanity is some divine creation as opposed just being smarter evolved great apes, primates.
M0nochromatic
Member
10/10 you are now one of my favorite
shit
Tranquilizers take 10-15 minutes to work, and the initial impact can agitate and make the target more aggresive.
Bean bag rounds and tazers don't work on gorillas.
FinalStageBoss
Banned
Damn, poor kid. Hope he's ok.
Absoludacrous
Member
So based on a video edited for content you think the people who cared for the animal and knew it best decided fuck it, let's just murder it.
This thread man.
He wasn't even that big. There are more dominant silverbacks at this zoo. He also had only been there for a little over a year coming from a Texas zoo.
Also was not torn apart. If anyone looks at the video you can see that. If he was such a scary monster he would have attacked him as soon as he fell in.
Here's another video of a similar situation from 1986 and the gorilla which is even larger there wasn't killed. If only the same could have happened this time.
https://youtu.be/W-CMxMv34_A
Sad, but this :
is not a proper enclosure for anything other than goats. It was a disaster waiting to happen.
I did not realize that
DiscoJer
Member
Why? I mean, why is it any of your business? Why should the internet be the judge of if a 3 year old child was in serious danger or not? As opposed to the people who worked at the Zoo and not only saw what was going on first hand, knew the gorilla in question.
I mean, really, people here judging the intent of a gorilla that they nothing about. Never mind that the gorilla dragged the kid around for 10 minutes, never mind the kid had to be hospitalized. People here simply know the intent of the gorilla and that he wasn't going to kill the kid, while people who know gorillas, who work with them every day, including this specific gorilla, somehow were completely ignorant and killed him with no reason.
Or, keep an eye on your fucking 4 year old kid?
T
Transhuman
Unconfirmed Member
Some say you can still see their ghosts if you visit the enclosure at night, or in this google maps picture.
How the hell could a four year-old child get into the enclosure? What was the parents even doing when that happened?
Really...?
Really...?
It sucks about the gorilla but the zoo staff made the right decision. Also,
young kids are tough, man, especially when you have a bunch of them. Everything isn't bad parenting, people are fucking overboard with that. Sometimes bad things happen. Kids are fast and it only takes a moment. Luckily the kid was ok.
young kids are tough, man, especially when you have a bunch of them. Everything isn't bad parenting, people are fucking overboard with that. Sometimes bad things happen. Kids are fast and it only takes a moment. Luckily the kid was ok.
T
Transhuman
Unconfirmed Member
I don't blame the inattentive parents, the negligent zoo, the violent gorrila, or the naughty child, I blame god. Oh sweet gorrila, there but for the grace of god go I.
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