Zoo’s fault in gorilla being shot at zoo, says animal rights group

The 17-year-old gorilla was in Cincinnati’s zoo just over a year

When it comes to the Cincinnati Zoo incident, in killing a gorilla, everybody seems to have a different opinion on who to blame.

Some say the mother, who lost sight of her 4-year-old son, who wandered into the gorilla’s pen. Others say the zoo.

Some believe shooting Harambe, the 17-year-old lowland gorilla, was necessary. Others believe it wasn’t. 

And, still, others, like Sara Andrews at the Madison-based Alliance for Animals and the Environment, believe gorillas shouldn’t be in zoos at all.

“These are very advanced animals,” Andrews said. “They’re very smart. And they should not be kept in captivity.”

Andrews says keeping any animals in zoos just boils down their lives to a commodity. She longs for the day when zoos become extinct and wild animals roam free in sanctuaries.  

She believes there are better ways to learn about wild animals than locking them up.

“I don’t really believe that they do a lot to educate people about the importance of animals and the inherent value of animals,” Andrews said.

Here’s the story of Harambe ending up at the Cincinnati zoo, where he’s been for just over a year.

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If animals were roaming free in sanctuaries, they’d be far removed from the possibility of getting killed for physically reacting to a child entering its living space.  

“What we learn, actually, (from zoos) is that the animals are here for us, and they’re here for our entertainment,” Andrews says of what’s wrong with zoos. “And we believe that there are many other ways to learn about animals and learn to respect animals.”

Andrews says blame should go to neither the parents, zoo staff or even the gorilla. It should go to the zoos. 

Better off when they’re all gone, says Andrews.  

“It’s kind of a situation that should never happen,” she said.