Gorilla shot -- who is responsible?

[Open Heart]

A four year old managed to get into the gorilla enclosure at the zoo. Zoo officials shot Harambe, the gorilla, out of fear for the boy's life. A Petition is circulating for "Justice for Harambe" seeking to hold the mother of the boy responsible, saying she was negligent in not supervising her child. Some people are also saying the Zoo is responsible. What do you think?

 

[AvilaSurfer]

The mother is partially responsible but the burden is on the zoo to build enclosures so it's impossible for this to happen.

 

[aieyiamfu]

This whole thing did make me ponder how gorilla meat would taste.

 

[Hank77]

What do you think?

http://www.christianforums.com/threads/dead-gorilla.7949025/page-4#post-69687444

There was quite a lengthy thread about this yesterday.
Both the parent and the zoo are responsible in my view, but mostly the parent. She was overburdened with caring for too many kids in this situation.

We also discussed keeping small children on harness type leashes in order to keep them from being able to slip away.

 

[redleghunter]

This whole thing did make me ponder how gorilla meat would taste.

Never tried it with all the links to apes and Ebola. Maybe @Uncle Siggy has a recipe or two.

Probably tastes like chicken.

 

[Uncle Siggy]

Never tried it with all the links to apes and Ebola. Maybe @Uncle Siggy has a recipe or two.

Probably tastes like chicken.

I have absolutely no clue...

 

[Open Heart]

Eating the meat of primates is obscene. They are too close to us biologically. It's almost cannibalism.

 

[Julie.S]

Eating the meat of primates is obscene. They are too close to us biologically. It's almost cannibalism.

It just seems odd to me to do so.

In the case of what happened though.

The mother should have been watching her child like all parents should as much as they can.
The zoo needs to take care in how they make places safe.

No one is 100% innocent in this case to me except the Gorilla.

 

[redleghunter]

Eating the meat of primates is obscene. They are too close to us biologically. It's almost cannibalism.

That is important to note. Thank you for mentioning this as I was going to comment anything battered and deep fried tastes good.

 

[redleghunter]

It just seems odd to me to do so.

In the case of what happened though.

The mother should have been watching her child like all parents should as much as they can.
The zoo needs to take care in how they make places safe.

No one is 100% innocent in this case to me except the Gorilla.

The zoo reacted with the child in mind. Can't blame them for that. They knew the gorilla best.

 

[Julie.S]

The zoo reacted with the child in mind. Can't blame them for that. They knew the gorilla best.

I am talking about it happening in the first place and prevention.

 

[ken777]

A four year old managed to get into the gorilla enclosure at the zoo. Zoo officials shot Harambe, the gorilla, out of fear for the boy's life. A Petition is circulating for "Justice for Harambe" seeking to hold the mother of the boy responsible, saying she was negligent in not supervising her child. Some people are also saying the Zoo is responsible. What do you think?

As a parent who successfully raised 5 children to healthy adulthood, I know slips in attention happen. The zoo is responsible for not child proofing the cage. God forbid there are any other lapses in their zoo management.

.

 

[revanneosl]

The twittersphere is suddenly full of people who have clearly been amassing large amounts of knowledge about animal-enclosure technology, parenting, primate behavior, and tranquilizer usage seemingly for just such an occasion as this.

 

[Kersh]

It's a sad situation. But, really, why can't we let accidents be accidents. We have worked so hard to sanitize all the experiences of childhood out of fear of accident. But, I fear that we do just as much damage trying to overprotect our children than the accidents that we are trying to protect them from.

Perhaps the zoo should have built a better enclosure. Perhaps the parents should have supervised their child better. Perhaps this was caused by our overprotective and sue-happy society that has subconsciously taught the parents to expect that they don't need to watch their children closely because of course enclosure will protect the child. Or, perhaps this is just an accident that happened because . . ., well accidents happen.

 

[Goatee]

In no way should anyone be able to get into such an enclosure. By accident or not! Zoo should have made 100% certain of that. Children will be children and we have all made our parents hair grey at some point while growing up!

You cannot wrap them in cotton wool and ok, in a zoo one should bee even more observant etc but situations are not always the same.

Obviously i guess the gorilla had to be shot due to the danger of a tranquilliser not doing its job quickly enough or the gorilla falling on the child.

Now, gorilla burger sounds different!

 

[Kersh]

In no way should anyone be bale to get into such an enclosure. By accident or not! Zoo should have made 100% certain of that. Children will be children and we have all made our parents hair grey at some point while growing up!

You cannot wrap them in cotton wool and ok, in a zoo one should bee even more observant etc but situations are not always the same.

Obviously i guess the gorilla had to be shot due to the danger of a tranquilliser not doing its job quickly enough or the gorilla falling on the child.

Now, gorilla burger sounds different!

According to the zoo's website, they have between 1 and 1.5 million visitors per year. And, this is the first time that I know of that a child has gotten into the enclosure. That would suggest that in the past decade less than 1/10,000,000 of the visitors to that zoo have ended up in the gorilla enclosure. The odds of getting struck by lightning within a given year, however, are 1 in 960,000. The odds of dying on a bicycle are 1 in 4,472. The odds of dying in a car accident are 1 in 18,585.

Interestingly, from what I have heard, the child is not only still alive, but relatively unscathed. Given all of the above, I can't fault the zoo for its safety measures. Like many attractions, they need to strike a balance between safety, costs, and enjoyability. I'm sure that they could build giant Plexiglas walls that guarantee that no unauthorized person will ever get into the enclosure, but I wouldn't want to take my kids to that zoo (they'd be bored to tears). Or, they could let the animals roam free with the people, but that would probably be a bit unsafe. So, they found a medium, and in this one instance, this one bad thing happened -- that doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't strike the right balance.

 

[RDKirk]

When I was a kid, the primates were kept in a literal concrete pit surrounded by a 30-inch railing. It was literally "child's play" to climb over the railing and drop into the pit.

Never happened AFAIK. My parents threatened to toss me in if I didn't behave, which seemed to work.

Gravity was at fault. Blame gravity.

 

[aieyiamfu]

Eating the meat of primates is obscene. They are too close to us biologically. It's almost cannibalism.

Fortunately they are animals so it's nothing like cannibalism.

 

[aieyiamfu]

That is important to note. Thank you for mentioning this as I was going to comment anything battered and deep fried tastes good.

Scrumptious.

 

[Uncle Siggy]

That is important to note. Thank you for mentioning this as I was going to comment anything battered and deep fried tastes good.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that it smells good while it's cooking. My friend once decided to bring a hybrid striper home to eat. While he was filleting and firing up the deep fryer I ran and grabbed a few things including some "beverages". I got back just in time to see his wife tossing him and the fryer out into the carport. The fish cooking stunk up the house, I mean it was really bad. But the funniest part was the fish was really good, go figure!!!