Killing of Harambe: Just or Unjust?

Killing of Harambe: Just or Unjust?

By Chelsea Fortemps

Harambe, a seventeen year old silverback gorilla form the Cincinnati zoo, was recently shot and killed last weekend.

By who? His own zookeeper.

A young boy of three years old had been curiously climbing around the gorilla enclosure and had managed to end up in there without his parents’ knowing. The child had ended up right next to the gorilla, as his mother is heard screaming from above “Mommy loves you! It’ll be okay!”

Though many would be scared to be around such a beast, this young boy sat quietly next to it as the gorilla shifts the boy behind it; almost as if it were protecting him. The screams and chants from observers above had most definitely aggravated the animal because he then drags the boy across the stream-floor to a different part of the enclosure.

In a video taken by a zoo goer, the boy is not seen crying or is harmed in any way shape or form. The gorilla is not harming the child nor is it making an attempt to; even when the boy is dragged, his head is above the foot deep water he resides in. Harambe, the gorilla, was later shot and killed after the boy was rescued out of the enclosure. So who is really to blame here? Did this creature deserve to die, or was it a matter of life and death that required the animal to be slaughtered?

Many are asking, what child’s parents could let their toddler fall 15 feet into a gorilla pit? It could be that the mother simply turned her head quickly enough for the boy to slip in, but it has been discovered that the father of the boy has a lengthy criminal history. Some of his charges include kidnap and drug trafficking. So are these parents even fit to have a child? The boy’s family will now be put under investigation, said Cincinnati police.