Harambe the gorilla beating his terrifying chest.......in hell???

[run2pee]

Ok b/c Scott's clearly busy in an airport somewhere:

The gorilla was shown dragging the child by his leg through the water as people screamed before he was shot dead.

But Richard Johnstone-Scott, gorilla keeper for 46 years, said on CNN’s New Day that 17-year-old Harambe might have been trying to protect the child from the screaming onlookers.

“It looked quite scary. But I understand that he was actually pulling the child away from where the people who were shouting and screaming out of concern for the little chap, he pulled him away from that area,” Johnstone-Scott said. “And then when he stopped, it seems to me that he helped the boy to his feet, which was quite amazing.”


Cincinnati Zoo officials have defended the decision to shoot the gorilla as necessary to protect the child. They said it was impossible to know if the gorilla was going to seriously harm the 4-year-old who climbed into the enclosure.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee even weighed in on the controversy at a press conference Tuesday morning.


“It looked so beautiful and calm and there were moments where it looked pretty dangerous,” Trump said. “I don’t think they had a choice.”

Criticism of the parents for not watching their child at the zoo has been widespread, though the moments leading up to the incident are unknown.


The mother posted a Facebook status thanking God her child was safe but later deleted it.

“As a society we are quick to judge how a parent could take their eyes off of their child,” the status read in part. “Accidents happen, but I am thankful that the right people were in the right place.”


Johnstone-Scott said there could have been more to the story that he hadn’t seen, but based on the video it seemed Harambe was being protective of the child, not aggressive. But he still did not question zoo officials’ decision to kill the animal.

“From what I can see on that film, I don’t think that Harambe meant to hurt that child,” Johnstone-Scott said. “If he had intended to hurt that child it would’ve been over in seconds. It would’ve been wham, bang, and that would be the end of it.”

Interested to hear the reaction from netphoria

[Disco King]

It's very sad that they shot him, and I saw some animal behaviour expert say that he wasn't likely to have intended to hurt the boy, but at the same time, hindsight is 20/20, and the zoo personnel had to make a split-second judgement call, because nobody could be sure that the boy was safe. I find it a little rich that people on my Facebook newsfeed are suddenly animal experts and chastising the staff and calling then "incompetent" for shooting him. It was a tragic event and an endangered gorilla shouldn't had died, but there isn't really a need to find somebody to blame.

I also like the people complaining about the mother being negligent for letting the boy fall in. I saw one viral Facebook post that included this passage

As a parent I find it incomprehensible that another parent would stand there and do nothing but scream. I would have immediately and without hesitation have jumped into that enclosure to protect my child, no matter the risks and It would not have been the gorilla that would worry me but rather the consequence of the 15-foot drop. But again as a parent I can’t even imagine how a 4-year old child was able to wander away . Was she texting someone or chatting on her cell phone?

Lol yeah, it's so easy to sit behind a computer screen and talk about how you would totally jump into a gorilla den to protect your kid. Bullshitters.

It's also so easy to call parents "negligent" for not being in control of all their children's movements 24/7. We all like to tell ourselves we'd never let anything like this happen, because we are responsible. Shit like this could happen to anybody, though.

I dunno, outrage culture just needs to find people to hang up to dry so that we can all pat ourselves on the back and feel better about our lives.

[run2pee]

Yeah it's really crazy how seemingly the entire internet has come down on this lady. It's not like she shot Cecil or anything. People just love a chance to feel self righteous, I guess.

Personally feel sorry for the mother, especially now that Cincinnati police have indicated they'll investigate whether she was criminally negligent...

I haven't heard a lot of talk about the zoo's culpability in all of this. Not sure about Ohio common law but most states have premises liability theories of negligence where if zoo invites u in there's a duty to keep u reasonably safe. Why was it so easy for a 4 yr old kid to wind up face to face with harambe??

[reprise85]

sad all around, but indeed it seems that shooting him was the logical decision at that point. good points Disco King as always. people have no perspective. you wouldn't be afraid of the gorilla? lol it's probably got 10x the strength of a well built 20 year old man. go ahead and jump in, i'm sure it will run away.

[reprise85]

I saw a documentary once (or read something?) on kids who died being left in cars. Most of the time the parents didn't/don't get prosecuted. Because yes it's an inexcusable mistake, but a mistake nonetheless, and one that a not-insignificant amount of people make. Is it neglegant? Yes, but not to the level of criminality. It's when something changes in your routine and you don't realize you didn't do it. For example, one guy left his kid in the car and only realized it when he got to preschool to pick him up and noticed that the front door was being replaced. Only then did he realize that HE was supposed to have dropped the kid off that day instead of his wife.

Anyway my point is shit happens, yes she fucked up but we all fuck up. Luckily for most of us it doesn't turn into a tragedy.

[redbreegull]

Jane Goodall said that it looked like the gorilla was trying to protect the kid, and she probably knows more about gorilla behavior than anyone in the world

however I understand making the split second decision to shoot because there is always a chance however small the gorilla might have hurt the boy

the mom doesn't deserve what is happening to her, and it's impossible to determine what exactly happened without having been there, but it does seem weird that a little kid could climb over the rail thing and crawl several feet through the bushes. had the child fallen from a high place and died, there would probably be a criminal investigation to determine if negligence was a factor so I don't have a problem with the police checking it out. I just hate social media mob justice and shaming culture.

[reprise85]

Gorillas are unpredictable. Once they become adolescents they are generally kept separate from humans, even trainers and experimenters (who are basically just playing with them from their POV, not talking about drugging them or anything). They are so strong that they could also hurt someone without meaning to.

[reprise85]

source is one of my profs who did experiments with gorillas raised in a home like children but had to be put in cages once they reached a few years of age

[duovamp]

Sigh.

Originally Posted by duovamp

[redbreegull]

[run2pee]

Saw some teens taunting gorillas at the zoo when I was a boy

They were banging on the glass, yelling shit (exhibit was a room you could go in with really thick glass) Gorilla 1 was showing teeth, hanging over by some rocks. Didn't expect Gorilla 2 comes suddenly out from rocks, beating chest. Teens kept at it. Gorilla 2 looked back at Gorilla 1 then charged the glass super fast and WHAMMMMM with both palms

Scared teens positively shitless, ran like babies

Yeah gorillas are so terrifyingly strong...that video is really hard to watch if u got lil kids u know and like

[redbreegull]

personally I think they should have shot the kid. there's a million kids all over the place, but how many gorillas are there really

[teh b0lly!!1]

this is the quintessential microcosmos of the world

moments of profoundly incredible acts of grace, violently shot down and brutalized by bad\stupid humans. not even sure which is worse

[MyOneAndOnly]

could have been worse. poor thing could have been living in Cleveland

[teh b0lly!!1]

how is it even possible not to have a better solution ready for situations like this

to just blast the animal dead? really?
why no tranquilizer guns? or a million other solutions that are to be figured out?

[reprise85]

tranquilizer guns don't work immediately. so then you have a powerful, confused, and angry gorilla for a minute or whatever. fine in other situations. not so much in this one

but yeah should be some other solution

[TuralyonW3]

The solution is for the parent to not let their fucking kid end up in a gorilla pen

[duovamp]

Unfortunately given the situation it was the best option. Not saying at all that it isn't kind of horrible to keep gorillas in zoos. And obviously there's extreme negligence somewhere which resulted in a kid winding up in the pen, but between the kid being ripped apart or shooting the gorilla, the choice is clear.

Last time I was at a zoo I got horribly depressed looking at the gorillas looking back at me and had to leave to go look at the giraffes or something.

[redbreegull]

I like to hang out near the okapi enclosure

[JESUSNEEDSAHIT]

zero sympathy for mother. is time we hold people responsible for their kids instead of this attitudes that kids are sacred innocent angels deserve protection at all costs and waaaah no one understand what it is to be parent. no. your kid is a fucking idiot and you are fucking idiot. he could have died instantly from the fall. your negligence could have killed your kid and it killed an endangered species. you are at a place specifically for people to look at wild animals. you are standing by a cage for an animal that could tear your arms off the way you open a bottle. oh it was an accidnet please understand, anyone could have make the mistake of taking your eyes off a human that came out of you long enough for him to climb over the fence and fall in in this situation, totally normal, just an accident that could happen t o anyone

fuck you, should have let the gorilla drink your kids brain from a straw

[JESUSNEEDSAHIT]

probably on her fucking cell phone as well

[FlamingGlobes]

That's a pretty hot take, there.

[duovamp]

Probably on her Obama phone talking to her baby daddy!

[teh b0lly!!1]

Originally Posted by duovamp

And obviously there's extreme negligence somewhere which resulted in a kid winding up in the pen, but between the kid being ripped apart or shooting the gorilla, the choice is clear.

yeah - let human out of billions on this earth die (oh but looky he's so little and cute!), or shoot down a helpless exotic animal caged for the entirety of its life for said humans' amusement.

clear as crystal right there

[JESUSNEEDSAHIT]

#shootthekid

#toomanyhumans

#barniesplanders2016

[teh b0lly!!1]

this is the kind of thing that really makes me wish there would be some horrific, world-scale disaster to wipe out 80% of human population

[JESUSNEEDSAHIT]

you called?

[buzzard]

The surviving 20% would likely maintain the same ratio of dickheads, though, unfortunately.

[duovamp]

Originally Posted by teh b0lly!!1

yeah - let human out of billions on this earth die (oh but looky he's so little and cute!), or shoot down a helpless exotic animal caged for the entirety of its life for said humans' amusement.

clear as crystal right there

If that were your child, I'm sure you'd feel the same as you do now.

[duovamp]

I mean you're acting like the kid is responsible for its actions and should be punished. It shouldn't. The consequence is the gorilla dying, which it didn't deserve, surely, but the kid doesn't deserve a gruesome death because it has stupid parents.