Posted by Editormum on 30 May 2016 in
News Commentary |
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Public outcry over the shooting of Harambe, a silverback lowland gorilla has been deafening these last few days. It is a tragedy that this endangered animal had to be killed because of human failures.
But a lot of the outcry is, at best, misguided. So let’s answer some of the questions and misconceptions that are running rampant.
Why didn’t they just tranquilize the gorilla?
There was not enough time. Despite what you may have seen on television and the movies, tranquilizer darts do not act instantly. They take several minutes to take effect. During that time, the child could have been more severely injured or killed. In addition, the screaming panic in the crowd clearly upset and disoriented Harambe. The adrenaline released into his system to cope with the fear and chaos would likely have made the tranquilizer less effective.
Furthermore, the impact of the dart would have startled Harambe, and the sting of the injection would have caused it pain. Have you ever been stung by a wasp or hornet? What was your reaction? Most humans who are unexpectedly attacked by a stinging insect will jump, scream, flail their limbs, and act in otherwise unpredictable ways. Animals who are “stung” by tranquilizer darts generally do the same thing, and an injured animal is a dangerous animal. The child was already in danger, and injuring or frightening a 400-pound gorilla would not have improved the child’s situation. It would likely have made it profoundly worse.
It looked like the gorilla was trying to protect the boy.
Maybe Harambe was trying to protect the child. But the ways in which animals protect their young are very different from the ways in which humans protect their young, and may, in fact, cause injury to a human. A mother lion’s disciplinary swat could easily kill a human child. Human parents don’t pick up a child by the scruff of its neck or carry it in their teeth, and they don’t pick up their children and toss them out of harm’s way. Harambe may have had the best intentions in the world, but he could have inadvertently killed the child.
The truth is that we don’t know what Harambe was thinking or doing. As much as we are conditioned to think of animals as having human characteristics, we have no facts about what goes on in their minds. Humans anthropomorphize animals and use them as vehicles to illustrate moral lessons, but there is no factual basis to show that they think as humans do. The Zookeepers didn’t have time to reason with Harambe or try to figure out his motivations.
It’s all the parents’ fault. Why does an innocent gorilla have to die because they didn’t adequately supervise their kid?
We are so quick to assign blame. I’ve been a parent of active children. I don’t care how well you are watching them, how careful you are, stuff happens. Preschoolers move like greased lightning. Several eye-witnesses stated that the boy had been asking to go in the water, and his mother told him no. A determined child needs only a moment to completely disappear. The child wanted to go in the water and mommy wouldn’t let him, so he made a run for it.
For all of those who are screaming for the parents’ heads on a platter, put yourselves in their shoes for a moment. The whole world gets to see the result of their parenting nightmare. They had to stand by and watch while their child was in mortal danger, while their child was being injured and screaming for help. And now the whole world gets to judge their parenting skills, based on the worst moment of their lives. Now, amid the clamour of judgment and blame, they have to deal with the what-ifs: “what if we’d had him strapped in his stroller,” “what if we’d been holding him in our arms,” “what if we’d had him on one of those baby-leash things,” “what if ….” Believe me when I tell you that this is torture enough.
The zoo should have had a better-designed enclosure.
It’s easy to be an armchair quarterback in these situations. But the zoo has not had any problems at the gorilla enclosure since it opened in 1978. That’s 38 years of incident-free operation. That’s an outstanding record. Maybe the enclosure could stand some updating, but it’s not the zoo’s fault that, for the first time in nearly four decades, someone breached the safety barriers.
—
It’s easy to jump to conclusions, to assign blame, to insist that someone was at fault. But this was not such a situation. It’s a tragic accident. Yes, an innocent gorilla was killed to protect a human child who was in a place he should not have been. But children and animals are the most unpredictable creatures on the planet. And when you are dealing with them, sometimes tragic accidents happen.
Tags: animals, children, Cincinnati Zoo, gorilla, Harambe, news, parenting, zoo
Death of a Silverback
Public outcry over the shooting of Harambe, a silverback lowland gorilla has been deafening these last few days. It is a tragedy that this endangered animal had to be killed because of human failures.
But a lot of the outcry is, at best, misguided. So let’s answer some of the questions and misconceptions that are running rampant.
Why didn’t they just tranquilize the gorilla?
There was not enough time. Despite what you may have seen on television and the movies, tranquilizer darts do not act instantly. They take several minutes to take effect. During that time, the child could have been more severely injured or killed. In addition, the screaming panic in the crowd clearly upset and disoriented Harambe. The adrenaline released into his system to cope with the fear and chaos would likely have made the tranquilizer less effective.
Furthermore, the impact of the dart would have startled Harambe, and the sting of the injection would have caused it pain. Have you ever been stung by a wasp or hornet? What was your reaction? Most humans who are unexpectedly attacked by a stinging insect will jump, scream, flail their limbs, and act in otherwise unpredictable ways. Animals who are “stung” by tranquilizer darts generally do the same thing, and an injured animal is a dangerous animal. The child was already in danger, and injuring or frightening a 400-pound gorilla would not have improved the child’s situation. It would likely have made it profoundly worse.
It looked like the gorilla was trying to protect the boy.
Maybe Harambe was trying to protect the child. But the ways in which animals protect their young are very different from the ways in which humans protect their young, and may, in fact, cause injury to a human. A mother lion’s disciplinary swat could easily kill a human child. Human parents don’t pick up a child by the scruff of its neck or carry it in their teeth, and they don’t pick up their children and toss them out of harm’s way. Harambe may have had the best intentions in the world, but he could have inadvertently killed the child.
The truth is that we don’t know what Harambe was thinking or doing. As much as we are conditioned to think of animals as having human characteristics, we have no facts about what goes on in their minds. Humans anthropomorphize animals and use them as vehicles to illustrate moral lessons, but there is no factual basis to show that they think as humans do. The Zookeepers didn’t have time to reason with Harambe or try to figure out his motivations.
It’s all the parents’ fault. Why does an innocent gorilla have to die because they didn’t adequately supervise their kid?
We are so quick to assign blame. I’ve been a parent of active children. I don’t care how well you are watching them, how careful you are, stuff happens. Preschoolers move like greased lightning. Several eye-witnesses stated that the boy had been asking to go in the water, and his mother told him no. A determined child needs only a moment to completely disappear. The child wanted to go in the water and mommy wouldn’t let him, so he made a run for it.
For all of those who are screaming for the parents’ heads on a platter, put yourselves in their shoes for a moment. The whole world gets to see the result of their parenting nightmare. They had to stand by and watch while their child was in mortal danger, while their child was being injured and screaming for help. And now the whole world gets to judge their parenting skills, based on the worst moment of their lives. Now, amid the clamour of judgment and blame, they have to deal with the what-ifs: “what if we’d had him strapped in his stroller,” “what if we’d been holding him in our arms,” “what if we’d had him on one of those baby-leash things,” “what if ….” Believe me when I tell you that this is torture enough.
The zoo should have had a better-designed enclosure.
It’s easy to be an armchair quarterback in these situations. But the zoo has not had any problems at the gorilla enclosure since it opened in 1978. That’s 38 years of incident-free operation. That’s an outstanding record. Maybe the enclosure could stand some updating, but it’s not the zoo’s fault that, for the first time in nearly four decades, someone breached the safety barriers.
—
It’s easy to jump to conclusions, to assign blame, to insist that someone was at fault. But this was not such a situation. It’s a tragic accident. Yes, an innocent gorilla was killed to protect a human child who was in a place he should not have been. But children and animals are the most unpredictable creatures on the planet. And when you are dealing with them, sometimes tragic accidents happen.
Tags: animals, children, Cincinnati Zoo, gorilla, Harambe, news, parenting, zoo