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Sunday, June 05, 2016

Gorilla killed after 4-year-old falls into zoo enclosure


A holiday weekend outing at Cincinnati's zoo turned doubly tragic Saturday when a 4-year-old boy was hospitalized after falling into a gorilla enclosure - and zoo workers had to kill the rare gorilla to protect the boy.

Cincinnati police and emergency crews responded to a report of a child falling into the exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden at about 4 p.m. Saturday. Police confirmed the child was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center near the zoo, and was treated for serious injuries that were not considered to be life-threatening.

Cincinnati Zoo President Thane Maynard said the boy crawled through a barrier and fell an estimated 10 to 12 feet into the moat surrounding the habitat. He said the boy was not seriously injured by the fall.

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37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where were the child's parents?!!

Anonymous said...

The first question I thought about!

Anonymous said...

This was preventable, which makes it an even sadder event. Where were the parents? How was it possible for the child to gain access? What an absolute shame that an animal had to lose its life, let alone an endangered species!

Anonymous said...

Until the powers that be realize that some children are raising themselves these accidents will happen. The parents should be responsible for the cost of the animal.

Anonymous said...

605 kid can easily fall into the enclosers. I'm shocked it doesn't happen more often. Aren't most accidents preventible? Sad the animal had to be destroyed very lucky the child survived.

Anonymous said...

the news cares more about the animal then the child. One of things wrong with this country.

Anonymous said...

How could that help the child's future?

Anonymous said...

6:17 PM - kinda a dumb statement. If the parent were watching him this would not have happened. Same thing can happen while crossing the street, but we do not kill gorillas over that.

Anonymous said...

True!

Anonymous said...

7:33 PM - idiot. We care about both, and the point being, if the parents acted responsibly this would not have happened and BOTH the child and the ape would be fine.
I do not see where anyone picked the ape over the child.
We are disgusted over the situation as a whole and the senseless killing of another life because of stupidity.

people like you are whats wrong with this country. people like you that are unable to reasonably comprehend an article and clearly stated facts.

Anonymous said...

806 you should work on being a happier person. Then you wouldn't feel the need to be cruel.

Anonymous said...

Sad situation, always going to second guess the decisions made @ the time of the event.

Anonymous said...

I feel sad for the gorilla. He was doing what gorillas do, protecting his home.

Anonymous said...

11:12 You are rude. I bet you don't talk to others like that in person.

Anonymous said...

I feel sorry for the little kid, he has to be raised by someone who doesn't look out for his best interest. Why was this parent not holding the little guy's hand? Why, if not holding his hand, did this parent not have constant eyes on the little guy? I don't care where you go with children, you better have a hand on or eyes on your child at all times, or things like this happen. I also feel sad for the gorilla, he didn't do anything wrong, matter of fact he claimed the little guy and was protecting him as he would have done in the wild but had to get shot because the real parent couldn't be a parent at that one second in time. Sad situation all the way around.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
605 kid can easily fall into the enclosers. I'm shocked it doesn't happen more often. Aren't most accidents preventible? Sad the animal had to be destroyed very lucky the child survived.

May 29, 2016 at 6:17 PM

Kid didn't fall. Didn't you look at the video? He would have been seriously injured if he fell.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
the news cares more about the animal then the child. One of things wrong with this country.

May 29, 2016 at 7:33 PM

You are correct!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
605 kid can easily fall into the enclosers. I'm shocked it doesn't happen more often. Aren't most accidents preventible? Sad the animal had to be destroyed very lucky the child survived.

May 29, 2016 at 6:17 PM

You obviously didn't see the video where that gorilla was tossing that kid around like a 4 year old and the kid was screaming in fear of his life.

Anonymous said...

Now the mother should have to pay the costs to put that gorilla down and the fair value of him. She is responsible for this killing.

Anonymous said...

They let the situation go on for 10 minutes? In 10 minutes why could they not find tranquilizer darts. Why did they kill it??

Anonymous said...

It's a bad parenting epidemic.....nobody watches their kids anymore and then when they go missing or get hurt,they want to blame or sue somebody.Stop having babies if you cant or wont watch them!

Anonymous said...

12:00 AM I don't see anything cruel in 8:05's statement. What's your point? No one seems to get your point.

Anonymous said...

7:45 AM - I do not believe the "screaming in fear of his life" was in any of the video's. Now you are storytelling.

This is not a lapse in momentary judgement on the parents part. This is typical of a certain culture not keeping an eye on their offspring.

Anonymous said...

CPS should be visiting the family next.

Anonymous said...

7:29 AM - stupid is stupid and yes I would tell you, in person that you are stupid, and so was your comment.

Anonymous said...

8:12 AM - Funny how you are questioning the zoo's reaction and not what the initial cause of the incident was. How about: They let the kid climb down a wall and fall in a moat full of water to be attacked by an innocent ape! If they just would have paid attention to their children this never would have happened! Why did they not pay attention to their children???

Anonymous said...

11:18 Nope you got me all wrong, I think bad parenting is 100% to blame, I just don't understand why killing the animal was necessary. Certainly a zoo should have tranquilizers available. Then everyone would have survived the event.

Anonymous said...

11:48 AM because ultimately they could not predict how the ape would react to being tranquilized and had the child between his legs. He could have fallen on the child and instantly killed it.

Anonymous said...

It appears that the mother was also "watching" several other children. But according to their obviously written for them statement, they thank the lord their child is safe.

Anonymous said...

So true

Anonymous said...

Some of you are so concerned about an ape being killed. I wonder if you are that concerned when people are being killed senselessly.

Anonymous said...

So many people are defending the parents by saying "oh it could easily happen, so much can happen in the one second the parents have their eyes off the child". Um, I'm pretty sure it takes longer than a second to climb a fence and get into a gorilla cage. Stop making excuses for poor parenting. That gorilla didn't deserve to die simply because someone can't watch their own child, especially in a ZOO. If you have so many kids that you can't keep an eye on them at all times, or you get too easily distracted, then you need to think twice before going somewhere in public like that without another person to help.

Anonymous said...

Why wouldn't you feel sorry for the gorilla? All they know is the zoo. They trust in the zoo to keep them safe and to feed them. They didn't ask to be there in captive aND caged. Someone came into his home that wasn't suppose to be there. Should of shot the parents after the gorrila

Anonymous said...

Moochelle Obomma was throwing that kid around like a rag doll. I'm surprised they were able to subdue her with some lead.

Anonymous said...

The Gorilla was held captive there. No choice in his coming and going. The Public chooses to go to be closer to wild animals. Zoo's don't like to advertise their failures to employees and the public when human error comes into play and a life is lost. It's a sad situation that could have been prevented by plexiglass barriers that completely eliminate any public access and better parenting. The public takes far too many risks thinking that caged animal is "friendly. "

Anonymous said...

This is so stupid. Of course you pick a humans life over that of any animal. First of all the tranquilizer is not instant it takes a while to put an animal that size down. Secondly we have been brain washed by these liberal animal rights people we do not even realize it. They are so stupid they protest against chicken plants being cruel to chickens then they go to lunch and eat chicken nuggets. The chickens were bred to be killed and eaten. This generation of children have been a growing up with little or no supervision at all for a long time because of single parents. Parent having to work all the time two or three jobs to support the kids. We have been programmed for a long time to have little regard for human life just by abortion alone we kill millions of babies every year just for the convenience of the mother who forgot her birth control. Those poor babies did nothing wrong but you don't see the majority of the public crying for the aborted babies. It is the world we are living in. A man is more likely to go to jail for killing an animal than for killing a person. The world is upside down and we sit back and watch it happen. Human have been eating animals since the beginning of time if you don't like it tough. It should always be human life first even if it means killing an animal to save a boy's life.

Anonymous said...

Generationally, parents aren't keeping a close eye, or holding hands of their toddlers. I see it often and it's scary. It's absolutely true that the zoo exhibit should have been safe from any entry - period. Children are quick to run off from parents. There's no way a zoo should have a fence that allows entry of a small child. Accidents unfortunately do happen. If this was a lion's den or tiger, the outcome would have been horrible. The whole thing is very sad.