The child could be in pieces in a matter of seconds,” said Hanna.Ĭomparisons have also been drawn between this incident and two others involving children falling into gorilla enclosures. “Let’s say the tranquilizer hit him in the bottom or wherever it hit him, you think he’s going to sit there? He’s going to jerk the child. Hanna seconded these thoughts, saying that although questions about tranquilizers are a valid, the child would not have survived the incident had zoo staff used one. “Tranquilizer guns are not exactly that accurate and so, if you were to fire a dart with enough immobilizing agent to knock down a 400 pound gorilla and you knock down the child, you would kill the child,” he said. ![]() Tarry agreed, saying that people often have a misconstrued view of tranquilizers from movies and TV shows and that tranquilizing was not a realistic option. Zoo officials said that a tranquilizer could not only anger the gorilla, but would be too slow to subdue the nearly 200 kg primate, taking approximately five to 10 minutes to work. Many critics have suggested using a tranquilizer instead of a bullet to subdue the gorilla. He acknowledged the fact that lowland gorillas are extremely endangered animals, but said that this story had the proper ending. Thane Maynard, Cincinnati Zoo director, applauded his staff for making a difficult, but in his opinion right, decision. In the absence of any alternative, he said, zoo officials did what they had to. He also said that there was likely a very small opportunity to shoot the gorilla without harming the child. “They had spent almost 10 minutes trying to separate the gorilla from the child and it was obvious that the gorilla was not going to let go of the child,” Tarry told CTV. According to Hanna, this could have confused Harambe further, seeing his family leave the enclosure. ![]() Zoo staff were able to get the two females who shared the enclosure with Harambe to leave with a whistled code, but Harambe wouldn’t budge. Harambe immediately approached the boy and at one point dragged him through the shallow water. The four-year-old boy fell three metres into the moat surrounding the gorilla enclosure. ![]() The decision to shoot and kill a 17-year-old silverback gorilla after a three-year-old boy fell into its enclosure has been intensely scrutinized and questioned as to whether it was the right thing to do.Īccording to Greg Tarry, associate director of Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums, and Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, the Cincinnati Zoo made the right call.
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