When asked if the the barrier could be easily penetrated by a child, she said it would take some effort. When the boy tried to back away the gorilla “aggressively” pulled him back into his body “and really wasn’t going to let him get away,” she said. He dragged him through the water and out of the moat atop the habitat, O’Connor said.īy that point, “It was not a good scene,” she said. The crowd’s cries appeared to agitate Harambe anew, O’Connor said, and the video shows him grabbing the boy by the foot. Harambe went over to the corner and shielded the boy with his body as the boy’s mother yelled “Mommy’s right here.” He stood him up and pulled up his pants.Īs the crowd’s clamors grew, Harambe tossed the boy into a corner of the moat, O’Connor said, which is when she started filming. The crowd started screaming, drawing Harambe’s attention to the boy, O’Connor said.Īt first, it looked like Harambe was trying to help the boy, O’Connor said. Suddenly, a splash drew the crowd’s attention to the boy in the water. Kimberley Ann Perkins O’Connor, who captured some of the incident on her phone, told CNN she overheard the boy joking to his mother about going into the water. The boy climbed through a barrier and fell some 15 feet to a shallow moat in Harambe’s enclosure, Maynard said. The incident drew widespread attention as dramatic video spread across the Internet showing Harambe dragging the boy like a rag doll through the water across the habitat. Gorilla World, home to nine western lowland gorillas, was closed. The boy, 4, was released unhurt from a Cincinnati hospital Saturday and the zoo opened on Sunday. “In mourning? You all killed him for protecting a child parents couldn’t contain their own children!!” said one commenter on the zoo’s Facebook page. Protestors outside Cincinnati Zoo, demanding action for #Harambe, Gorilla shot after child fell in enclosure. Demonstrators gathered outside the zoo on Sunday calling for a boycott. Others criticized the zoo for responding with what they felt was excessive force. An online petition seeking “justice for Harambe” through criminal charges earned more than 8,000 signatures in less than 24 hours. Some even suggested the boy’s parents should be held criminally responsible for the incident. #Harambe #CincinnatiZoo /4wnkYH1TWn- Chris Dusauchoit May 29, 2016 Neither the boy nor his family have been identified.īeautiful animals sadly paying for utter human stupidity and negligence with their lives. Many blamed the boy’s mother for failing to look after her son. The words did little to assuage an angry chorus of critics who believed the gorilla’s death was unnecessary. “We are heartbroken about losing Harambe, but a child’s life was in danger and a quick decision had to be made,” he said. Tranquilizers may not have taken effect in time to save the boy while the dart might have agitated the animal, worsening the situation, Maynard said. The boy was in “imminent danger,” leaving the zoo’s Dangerous Animal Response Team with no option but to shoot the 450-pound gorilla, zoo director Thane Maynard said in a statement on Facebook. Those are some of the words the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden used Sunday in a contrite explanation for the death of Harambe, a 17-year-old western lowland gorilla killed on Saturday to save a boy who slipped into the zoo’s habitat.
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