Posted on 05/28/2016 4:42:31 PM PDT by xzins
CINCINNATI – A gorilla was killed after it dragged a 3-year-old boy that fell into its enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden Saturday, Zoo Director Thane Maynard said.
The boy was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.
Police and EMTs were called to the zoo at about 4 p.m. for reports that a gorilla was "slamming the child into the wall."
Maynard said the boy crawled through a barrier and landed in the moat. He was walking and splashing. Harambe, a 17-year-old male gorilla weighing more than 400 pounds, picked up the boy, Maynard said. Witnesses said the gorilla grabbed and dragged the screaming boy around the habitat for about 10 minutes.
RELATED: Silverback gorilla Harambe comes to Cincinnati Zoo for 'spring training'
Personnel from the zoo's dangerous animal response team decided to put down Harambe rather than tranquilize him because the boy was in danger and the tranquilizer would not have taken effect immediately, Maynard said. Two other gorillas in the exhibit were called back inside.
Maynard called it "a life-threatening situation" for the boy. The response team shot Harambe.
He is now said to be 4 years old. I still don’t see how it’s possible, but I guess it was. I read it was through a fence, under another, and down a sheer drop into a moat.
Indeed I had a girlfriend Brit public school raised
Parents lived Gstaad or Anguilla mostly
Detached
I’m not like that
The motorcycle death fueled me instantly with raw empathy and as father of five kids including three boys in a row....selfishness
I admit I prayed for the dad and thanked God it wasn’t my loss at the same moment
My wife would have to be institutionalized
My boys have KTM dirt bikes and a lot of land to ride but street bikes no
I took a pic of the crumpled bike and sent it to me 16 year old who’s been sweating me for a street bike for school
He read about it on the news and declared his desire for a street bike was done
Right after I witnessed it I called my wife and choked back throat lumps trying to explain it
The banker lady I was with was despondent
It was one of the worst things I’ve ever witnessed especially the fathers arrival as he saw immediately it was his young son
We have had more than a few Mountain Lion attacks on mountain bikers in the wilderness parks in Orange County, CA. Adults jumped by the cats and sometimes killed.
+100 My brother got killed on my motorcycle by a drunk driver...He was 19...My dad became an alcoholic for a few years from that event...His last 21 years of his life, he was a tee totaler....Eff the no soul gorilla.....Child versus animal...animal will lose EVERYTIME in my book.
The difference might be that a female got to the kid first, not a silverback.
I’m sorry you had to witness that. If it dissuaded your son from owning a vehicle that might prove dangerous, perhaps it was God speaking to him through you. I don’t generally think this way but it is one way of making peace with a traumatic event. Life kinda stinks, doesn’t it?
That is a pretty despicable thing to say.
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