I was on an elliptical over the weekend when I first saw the headline and I had to change the channel immediately. All I saw was “killing” and “gorilla” and I didn’t know in that moment if the report was referring to Harambe or the child who had somehow snuck into the zoo enclosure.
It didn’t matter; I didn’t want to see the killing of an animal anymore than that of a young boy and I couldn’t believe someone had actually caught footage of a living being’s final moments.
All weekend, I thought about the unbelievably sad news and watched as mobs of people became incensed with fury, anger, and bullshit rhetoric.
“That mother should be killed.”
“Put her in child protective services.”
“Humans > animals.”
“That gorilla deserved to die.”
I’ll be honest—all of it made me sick to my stomach.
There is no good, no resolution, no way to end or undo the sadness… but I felt I needed to weigh in, even though this all pains me to even type. I’m not a confrontational person, as you probably all know. But I keep thinking about a song that seems very fitting in this situation in particular and so I wanted to share the song, and the lyrics in particular, with you.
Have you ever visited a zoo?
Have you ever had to make a quick decision that turned out to be the wrong one?
Have you ever lost sight of your child for just a fraction of a second?
Do you donate your time and efforts to wildlife conservation?
Have you ever built something that turned out to be faulty?
Are you a vegetarian?
Frankly, I don’t care how you answer these questions, but why don’t we use this opportunity to do something good. Stop shitting on this mother who has been receiving death threats. Stop saying that animals have less of a right to exist on this planet than we do. Stop finger pointing; we are all to blame, and we all have blood on our hands.
Basta. Rant over.
Such an upsetting situation. I have mixed feelings about zoos. I like seeing animals up close that I would never see otherwise, but the enclosure and treatment of zoo animals make me sad, and in this case, angry.
it breaks my heart. i am an animal lover, but the zoo made the right call. how would people be responding if the 4 year old had been mauled? although i do visit zoos, i am not a fan of them. if we want to see animals in their natural habitat, we should all make the trek to africa instead of supporting zoos. i agree, i am too blame. makes me want to cry.
I just can’t with this one. As a parent and an animal lover. I think they probably did what they had to do, because I believe that tranquilizers take too much time, and maybe the child was in danger.
That said, I think gorillas are smarter than most humans, and shouldn’t be in zoos just like we shouldn’t.
That’s a story for another day, of course, and weighing in on all animals.
Oooh, this is horrible. I hadn’t heard about this news story. Horrific. I agree, we are all to blame. In answer to your questions; 1. Yes 2. Yes 3. Yes 4. Not enough 5. Yes 6. No (although I’m very aware of moderating my intake of meat)
“The mother should be killed” – are you kidding?! That’s a bit harsh.
I am not a vegetarian. And honestly, I don’t really question what happened… I wasn’t there so I really don’t know EVERY detail. Just like a BULK of the people throwing out these harsh comments and criticisms.
Great post, Chars–ugh, what a difficult situation! It’s tragic the gorilla had to be killed, and it’s also tragic that the mother is enduring so much abuse. I watched the video and just imagined that it was Laken down there, and the thought made me feel sick. Kids are FAST–I know for sure that I’ve looked away for a matter of seconds and turned back to see Laken making a move towards something that she shouldn’t be. Anyway, that whole thing was going to be ugly no matter what. Either spectators would watch a child being killed, or the gorilla. I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere near that decision making process!
Here’s my problem.
The gorilla did what gorillas do. Is it the gorilla’s fault that it’s a gorilla? Is it the gorilla’s fault that asshole humans thought it’d be fun to put the gorilla in a cage to watch the gorilla day in and day out? Nope. Not the gorilla’s fault.
The parent chose to have the child. The parent should be parenting the child. And while I do agree that accidents happen, and I agree that death threats and name calling is absolutely ridiculous, I also believe that many parents these days do not seem to actively parent. They think they can go to a public place and let their children run around willy nilly and then when something bad happens they point fingers at – the workers in the store, the baristas, waitresses, workers… anyone but themselves. Because their job is SO HARD and they just needed a small break and blah blah blah.
I watched the other day as a parent let their children run all over a veterinary office – trying to run into rooms, behind the counter, throwing a clipboard on the floor… and then getting right in a dog’s face. The owner of the dog immediately pulled the dog back, trying to get between the dog and the kid while the kid kept moving to the dog. Even as the dog owner tried her best to fix the situation, knowing her dog can sometimes be aggressive when its space is invaded.
And then parent of the kid? Was so busy on her phone that she had NO IDEA that her child could have had his face torn off.
Parents need to actively parent. And many of them don’t. And that is why I’m angry that a gorilla is dead. That is why I hold the parent responsible. Because that parent should be doing a better job of watching the little human in her care. That is her job. And if I failed at my job the way she did at her I would be fired. So why does she get a pass?
Great article Charlotte! Krysten I partially agree with you – there definitely isn’t enough as you call “active parenting” now, and working in a hospitality industry (I’m sure it happens in many other industries too but this is really the only one I have a lot of experience with) you see it so often. Children running rampant, upturned chairs and parents just letting them loose because they “need the break”. At first I didn’t get it because I didn’t have kids, but now I do. I’m definitely not condoning the fact that you just let your kid loose through a restaurant and cause havoc in public because you think someone else will pull them in line. Not at all. I am however going to say that it’s really impossible to have a literal eye on your kid 24/7. Knowing where in the general vicinity they are is pretty exhausting and yes it should be done more. But watching every single move they make and do is impossible. It would be like monitoring one of your coworkers every second. You would forget about doing your own work, taking down orders, delivering food etc. In this case the mum’s own work was answering the phone. She knew where he was in the general vicinity but having that tiny bit of attention taken away was all the kid needed to just go for it. I hope that maybe this article might help clear a few things up?
http://www.yella-ella.com/to-the-mum-whos-boy-fell-into-the-gorilla-exhibit/
Hugs x
I’m totally behind on reading and commenting, sorry!
I just wanted to say that I 100% agree with you. This isn’t about an evil rampaging gorilla or about an irresponsible, neglectful mother. It’s a terrible situation that happened and the outcome is awful for EVERYONE. No one should be celebrating, and no one should be armchair quarterbacking. I can’t imagine what it was like for anyone involved.