Today, Cincinnati is mourning our 17-year-old gorilla, Harambe, who was shot when a little boy fell into his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Today, Cincinnati is not mourning the death of a 4-year-old boy who was killed by a gorilla when he fell into the enclosure.
Many have ugly things to say about the mother and her young son, but I have yet to see any opinions about her parenting based on truth, other than she also was at the zoo with other young children.
I see it this way…
Accidents happen. Sometimes horrifying accidents happen. Accidents like drownings, car wrecks, falls and all of these things can kill children. Yet, when these things happen, do we immediately default to blaming the parents? Do we say the awful things we are saying about this mother? Or do we seek to find compassion for a situation we hope to never be in ourselves?
I feel for her. Her small son was in a gorilla enclosure. I can only imagine how terrified she was. Thankfully, his injuries are not life-threatening. There could have been a different turnout and this mother could be mourning her child.
But most of all, I can see myself being this mother. I can’t understand why so many can’t. Has your child never done something they were explicitly asked not to? Never snuck away from your sight while you were tending to their sibling? Mine have.
As for me, I am offering compassion to this mom. She almost lost her son on Saturday. What if it had been me? Or my son? I would hope for compassion from others as well.
The team at Cincinnati Moms Blog offers our collective compassion to this little boy and his family. We can only imagine the emotions and trauma experienced by them during yesterday’s events and certainly into today and future days as well. We also offer our condolences and support to The Cincinnati Zoo for their loss and we offer them our support as they move forward in the days to come.
More information can be found through the official media statement of The Cincinnati Zoo and Thayne Maynard’s press conference from yesterday afternoon.
Don’t take multiple children to the zoo or any where of that matter if you can’t make sure they are not in harms way, and due to lack of supervision this child almost lost his life! There are no excuses for this mothers actions at all! The animal would still be alive if the child never got into the encloser, which never would have happened if the child was supervised. No sympathy for the mother what so ever!
Yes accidents happen but this is all on the mom. For all of you who say those who blame her must not have kids. We have 6 and 2 grandbabies now and we have never had anything happen. Which I’m very thankful for. But she should have been watching him better more than one child with her or not.
There are a lot of people jumping at the idea that this mom almost lost her son. However, the gorilla looked like he was trying to save him the way he was save a baby gorilla, who are tougher than our own children. The choice to put down the gorilla had to have been an extremely hard one, but a tranq could have angered him and caused more problems.
That being said, this is also a case of neglect. This child was able to get around safety features designed to stop this. Some say it happened quickly and while that could be true it also had to take the kid time to get past all of that. The mother had no clue her child had even gotten into the enclosure until it was too late.
However, let’s ignore the fact that an endangered animal died and say that the child has gotten into a secure pool and died. Everyone would be blasting the mother with neglect and sentiments of how could she not watch her child.
The blame is not on the zoo as they did everything to make sure no one could get in there and yet someone small found a way. This lays the blame on the parents. I feel for her in some ways, but she should have been paying closer attention to what her child was doing.
Sorry I can’t relate – the kid told the mom he was going to jump in. This was probably not his first rodeo. Bottom line – if you have children be responsible – if you have a child that is non compliant – then buy and keep them on a teather. Beats what happened and yes – parents need to get a grip – if you are going to a potentially dangerous environment – you take all precautions. He should have been at
Minimimum – a stroller with his shoe strings tied together. Sounds mean but my girlfriend resorted to this to keep her twin boys from climbing out of strollers and carts and being hurt or running off. If you can see yourself in this mom’s position then maybe you need to think about your own behavior and decisions as it comes to your child’s welfare. Last my kids were so compliant they stuck to me like glue no matter where we were and I had two of them and took them everywhere by myself so don’t comment that I have not been there.
Yes. All of it, yes. Let’s not judge. Being a parent is hard.
I certainly wouldn’t want to see a child die at the expense of saving a gorilla, and I understand that kids are hard to keep up with, they get into everything, but….this was at a frickin ZOO! They have wild animals there, that’s why there’s cages. These aren’t puppies & kittens here. Take your 4 year olds hand, if you can’t keep them in check, go to a carnival. Not the zoo. What if you were walking on a sidewalk next to the street? Vacation to grand canyons, any dangerous situation, you are responsible for your child’s safety. I feel this family should have to make a sizable contribution to the preservation of lowland gorillas, at the very least. I’m glad this child wasn’t hurt, but sick over the unnecessary death, of this big guy.
I’m glad the boy wasn’t hurt badly. I’m sad they did not give the handlers a chance to “work with” Harambe. But I also think the parent(s) should have been paying more attention to their child, especially since he repeatedly said he wanted to go in the enclosure. I also don’t think the zoo should be held accountable to any lawsuit arising from this unfortunate event.
Yes, I have been in charge of a toddler–a strong-willed one who had a medical diagnosis of ADD. When she said she was going to do something that would harm her, I listened, I redirected, and I held on to her for dear life. We did not argue back and forth about whether or not she was getting to do what she wanted to do. I was the adult; she was the child. I was in charge of her. Period.
I do believe the presentation of the story had a great deal to do with public opinion. For instance, the video clips that I saw deleted the more graphic portions of the entire episode and, apparently, according to what Shane Maynard and other experts said, it was those graphic parts that precluded the killing of Harambe. I agree that the clips that were shown presented a primate in protective mode. What those viewing those clips did not see was “the rest of the story.” We did not see the agitated gorilla dragging the child up the stone wall to get him to safety all the while jeopardizing the child’s life.
We ( the viewing public) are being fed little bits of information that are keeping the debate going. The child may not have physical after effects, but he will exhibit emotional stress in some form which may affect him for the rest of his life. This was a traumatic incident. Trauma can be very difficult to work through. In the meantime, we are at the mercy of the media and for our own sake’s should be patient until we receive more information.
What I believe what you are not understanding, this was a dangerous place to be. Around dangerous animals. You need to keep even an extra closer watch than ever around this situation. Sure accidents happen, but this was an accident that should not have happened if she was paying attention to her child. He was an active child and I do not blame the child, I blame the parents when I see a child that is doing something that they should not be doing, at this age. I totally agree, the gorilla should have been put down. The life of the child is definitely the first objective than preserving a wild animal’s life that could have caused grave physical harm to this child. But this mom should stand up and take responsibility for the situation and she should say how sorry she is that this happened. I think she needs to make a public apology so everyone will stop with the blame game and the protestors that are making waves about what the zoo decided to do will stop. This child will have trauma, I believe, for the rest of his life. Something happened to me at a very young age and has traumatized me to this day. I have prayed and prayed that this child will recover both physically and emotionally.
Regardless of the circumstances, the child breached a barrier that has been in place for 38 years and has had no other breaches. According to Thane Maynard yesterday, the child climbed OVER it. This took time. Where was his mother?! He had already told her three times that he wanted in that water. She knew he was intrigued with it, so why would she take her eyes off him?! Or better yet, why didn’t she move on to another exhibit?! In my opinion this was NOT an accident. This was situation which could have been completely avoided had the mother been more attentive, in both the child’s words and his actions. I am glad the child did not get hurt any more than he did, but because of her neglect a CRITICALLY ENDANGERED, BEAUTIFUL, MAGESTIC animal had to be sacrificed. He didn’t ask for that child to come into his home. I personally don’t believe the gorilla was agitated and “disoriented” because the child was in there, as it has been stated. I believe he was that way because of everyone yelling and screaming, although understandable so. I wouldn’t be surprised if this woman sues the zoo, but I personally say shame on her if she does. She probably doesn’t want to go there because then the zoo will be forced to show and prove her neglect. I haven’t heard her issuing a statement apologizing for putting the zoo in a situation where they were forced to make such a tough decision, for being the cause of the gorilla losing his life, and for the world set-back in gorilla research and CONSERVATION.