RIP HARAMBE :(

[sally]

Jack Hanna just said on CNN, that gorilla had angry look on his face and was not happy and that he could have killed that child in a second. He says Zoo did the correct thing by shooting him. Well, he certainly is the expert, not me.....

I watched the video again and that gorilla does not look angry to me, he looked confused to me like what the hell is this little thing that dropped out of the sky and what am I supposed to do with it. And the fact that he could have killed the boy in a second, but didn't for the whole 10 minutes he was down there makes me think he didn't intend to. But I'm not an expert on gorilla behavior and I understand that they couldn't just wait around to see what the gorilla might do next.

[Love Child]

If we lock up animals for our own amusement in order to go and gawk at them, tragedies like this are kind of our fault. The hubris of thinking we are immune to nature's laws. That a wild animal won't snap and eat us if we pet it, give it names, pretend it's our kid, make it do tricks in a water tank, or simply throw it in a cage and parade past it for hours and days and weeks and years.

Amen.
Zoo is in business for profit, not animal preservation that we would all like to believe.

And....
I had a fucking harness on as a kid. People used to laugh when I say that, but if I was that squirelly then I am glad for my parents for keeping me safe.

[sally]

My daughter had a harness but it was designed as a stuffed otter backpack with a leash hooked to it. She loved that thing and was the one that asked me to buy it for her. She didn't mind one bit being walked like a dog. I've heard people say it's degrading or whatever, but a 3 or 4 year old kid doesn't think that way and if helps to keep them from getting lost in a crowd of people (or falling in a gorilla cage) then that's a good thing.

[Duchess]

I mocked them when I first began seeing them around but my tune has changed over the years. I think they're probably a very good idea.

[aussiefriend]

shit doesn't happen unless you're not here legally, Diazs. Oryg time on Fox Mattress

You sound like Jean-Claude Van Damme. I can't make head or tail of it.

I saw Zookeeper not Zoolander, and they had all sorts of relationship issues, but the gorilla sorted it all out and he was a good rapper too.

[aussiefriend]

I never let my child out of my grip in public until 6 or 7 years old. If going to a zoo, I would have been hypervigilant. I can't judge other people, but I have a friend who worked a long time in the Paediatric Burns Unit, she said to me, that most of the time, the parents where 'drongos'. The thing is, you can't drop the ball with kids, that's why it's so bloody exhausting, if you are doing it properly, watching them ²⁴⁄₇ it's bloody hard work.

[username]

P.S. If the parents end up trying to sue the zoo or something like that, I'll really be pissed. Hopefully, they won't try to profit from their own inattention and capitalize on the tragedy.

Oh shit. Of course they will! As you said up post, it really shouldn't have been possible for a child to squeeze in there. I'm sure the parents have attorneys crawling up their ass right now encouraging them to sue.

If they don't sue I'll be surprised and pleased. It's nice (and rare) to see people show some morals and scruples.

Poor gorilla. :(

[Love Child]

I mocked them when I first began seeing them around but my tune has changed over the years. I think they're probably a very good idea.

Yeah, especially when babies or kids can be stolen or lured away so quickly.

I really am sad for this gorrila, but there are so many things that have contributed to this.

The other sad recent story was the person who put a mountain goat or something in their car thinking it was cold. WTF and it had to be put down. But again, are we doing animals a service when we put them in places then pay to go see them? Or pay to go whale watching because we love nature?
I have to honestly ask myself why I would step foot into another zoo ever again. And that makes me sad, because I love animals LOL. I'll have to stick to trying to find them in the wild and hope I don't mess that up also!

[Duchess]

I think you're referring to the baby bison at Yellowstone. Why in the world anyone would think a wild critter was cold is beyond me. His mama and the rest of the herd wouldn't accept him back after that. :(

[Donovan]

I think back to my childhood and all the shit I was able to get into while my parents looked a way for a second, and I am very sympathetic to these parents who are being vilified. Yes it was horrible what had to happen, and yes it's a shame the gorilla had to get killed but when shit is going down the people called on to act do not have the luxury of time and video review and endless debate. One blow would have killed that boy. So they did what was immediately necessary to save the kid. When I was three I wandered into a cornfield and was gone for about seven hours before they managed to find me. When I was seven I decided to run away in the middle of the night, taking my dresser drawers, all my blankets, my three year old brother and some pbjs across the street behind a neighbor's tree. Took several trips in and out of the house to do it, in the middle of the night. We wandered around the neighborhood and into a mini golf course at 3am, a 7 yr old and a 3 yr old, and played there for a while, then wandered back to sleep under the tree. Never woke a single soul in our house or any other.
Kids do stupid shit without warning and no parent can be perfect 100% of the time. Calling for their heads won't change the horrifying thing they have to live with now.

[Maggot]

I looked at a few more pictures of the silverback and he was truly an amazing specimen.

[Blindgreed1]

Considering the fact that, that gorilla crushed coconuts with his hands, and looking at the unedited video of him thrashing the kid around in the water I don't think they had a choice.

[Maggot]

Oh I agree, it does just suck though.

[Blindgreed1]

Oh I agree, it does just suck though.

Yup.

[Duchess]

I agree with all the logical, common sense stuff everyone is posting, of course the child needed to be saved but I'm illogical too, it's just who I am and I get downright pissy over animal deaths at the hands of humans. I know as I post this that being mad at the parents isn't exactly rational.

This must be how Sally felt when she said her candlesticks might not like their picture being in Mock. Crazy.

[sally]

If what this witness says is true then I think she is getting more shit than she deserves. If she's any kind of decent person I'm sure she feels terribly guilty both that her son could have died just from the drop alone and that an animal had to pay for her mistake with its life.

A witness named Deidre Lykins described what she saw and heard in a long post on Facebook, which has been shared nearly 43,000 times:


I was taking a pic of the female gorilla, when my eldest son yells, “what is he doing? ” I looked down, and to my surprise, there was a small child that had apparently, literally “flopped” over the railing, where there was then about 3 feet of ground that the child quickly crawled through! ! I assumed the woman next to me was the mother, getting ready to grab him until she says, “Whose kid is this? ” None of us actually thought he’d go over the nearly 15 foot drop, but he was crawling so fast through the bushes before myself or husband could grab him, he went over! The crowed got a little frantic and the mother was calling for her son. Actually, just prior to him going over, but she couldn’t see him crawling through the bushes! She said “He was right here! I took a pic and his hand was in my back pocket and then gone!” As she could find him nowhere, she lookes to my husband (already over the railing talking to the child) and asks, “Sir, is he wearing green shorts? ” My husband reluctantly had to tell her yes, when she then nearly had a break down! They are both wanting to go over into the 15 foot drop, when I forbade my husband to do so, and attempted to calm the mother by calling 911 and assure her help was on the way.


“The mother was not negligent and the zoo did an awesome job handling the situation!” Lykins wrote.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/%e2%80%...id=DELLDHP


PS: I don't really think the candlesticks are mad, but the thought did cross my mind since the leaves seem to be moving on their own and all.

[HairOfTheDog]

Overall, I think the pros of zoos outweigh the cons these days (excluding those that don't properly care for the animals).

The rise in animal rights activism over the last couple of decades has had a positive impact, in my view.

Personally, I don't mind that zoos make a profit, especially if that profit enables the conservationists and caretakers to invest more in education, create the most comfortable habitats, and preserve species whose natural habitats have been destroyed by man and/or who've been brought to near extinction by poachers.

I've heard Joan Embery speak a few times on the topic and agree with her take. http://greenglobaltravel.com/2015/08/08/...servation/

[HairOfTheDog]

Harambe was bred in captivity and was expected to father children in the next couple of years as part of conservationist efforts to preserve the silverback gorilla. By all accounts, he was very well cared-for and loved. He turned 17 on Friday and the zoo had a birthday party for him. He was killed the next day.

I'm so sorry Harambe's dead, but the child's life had to be the priority, of course. I think the people who are criticizing the rescue workers who shot him are off-base. I don't for a second believe that Harambe intended to hurt of kill the boy -- he could have done so many times over in the course of 10 minutes had that been his natural instinct or desire. But, the risk to the boy's life was very real regardless, just by the nature of Harambe's size and the unpredictability of a chaotic scene.

I think people would probably have grown less angry with the parents if the mother's statement had included something, anything, about the loss of Harambe. Here's what she posted.


Source: http://heavy.com/news/2016/05/michelle-g...-petition/

[HairOfTheDog]

Police Investigation

Snip:
A Cincinnati police spokesman confirmed Tuesday that investigators are "looking at the facts and circumstances" that led a 4-year-old boy to end up in the moat surrounding the Cincinnati Zoo’s gorilla exhibit.

Lt. Steve Saunders said "it's too early to say whether it was recklessness on the part of the parent."

"We're just doing our due diligence to make sure we know what happened," Saunders told The Enquirer in an interview.

Tuesday was the first time police formally acknowledged that an investigation is underway in Saturday’s incident, which led zoo officials to shoot and kill a 17-year-old, 450-pound silverback gorilla. Fire officials said the boy was between the gorilla’s legs at the time it was shot.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said in a statement Tuesday that after the police investigation is completed, his office will "confer with" police about possible criminal charges.

Story: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/201.../85190074/

[Duchess]

I watched some video of the man who had raised him up until a year or so ago when he was turned over to the zoo. It made me sad all over again.

I feel bad for the person who had to shoot him too.