A bit late to comment on this, but why not?
So we have a gorilla that has been shot dead to prevent him possibly injuring a four-year old that had somehow managed to get into the enclosure. Which is obviously a shame.
Having said that, and despite the fact that I’m fully behind limited rights for great apes, I believe that shooting Harambe was probably the right thing to do. Harambe could have ripped that four-year old apart, and from the videos I have seen, he didn’t look exactly calm. And when you come down to it, the decision has to be down to the zoo keepers.
Of course you could just let the four-year old get ripped to pieces, but you would have to be a gorilla to think that was a good idea.
But how did the four-year old get into the enclosure in the first place?
There’s two parts to that. Why did the zoo not make their enclosures toddler-proof?
And why did this toddler’s mother let him get away? Admittedly controlling a toddler makes herding cats look easy, but keeping a toddler on a leash around dangerous animals would seem to be a sensible idea.
