The death of a gorilla at the zoo in the american city of cincinnati has attracted the attention of hundreds of thousands of animal lovers beyond the u.S.A. Zoo staff had found the 17-year-old "harambe" in the zoo shot dead on saturday after a young boy climbed over the protective gelander, fell into a water ditch around the gorilla facility and was then dragged through the water by the silver rhino. The four year old was then rescued and came away with the scare.
The storm of protest via the internet and a media frenzy in the u.S. That even upstaged the presidential campaign forced the zoo management to defend its action again on monday. The anger, however, was not only directed against the zoo, which according to the critics was too radical, but also against the parents of the boy.
By monday evening (local time), around 200 signatures had been received.According to the NBC channel, thousands of people have started an internet petition demanding their punishment. They had not sufficiently supervised their child and thereby caused the death of the gorilla, he said as a reason.
Also a facebook page with the name "justice for harambe (justice for harambe) received tens of thousands of likes within just a few hours. "Killing an endangered animal is worse than murder", quoted by the "washington post for example a comment from denmark.
Zoo director thane maynard confirmed to journalists on monday that the death of "harambe" was the result of an accident was a heavy loss, but there had been no other choice. The gorilla had become agitated, disoriented and unpredictable as a result of the youngster’s fall, and with its weight of almost 200 kilos it had posed an immediate danger to the child.
Paralyzing the animal with an anesthetic was not an option. That had taken too long, maynard said: "we stand by our decision, and we were treated the same way today."
Meanwhile, the parents of the boy thanked her in a written statement for the "quick reaction" of the zoo staff and at the same time acknowledged that the zoo had suffered a heavy loss. Her boy is doing well, she continued.
According to u.S. Media reports, the police are not planning any investigation of the parents. According to U.S. Media reports, the mother was present when her son fell into the ditch, as a daycare mother together with several other children.