As news of a 17-year-old gorilla’s death spreads around the world, animal lovers and others have been expressing their fury over the divisive incident. Harembe, a 400-pound western lowland gorilla, had been living in the Cincinnati Zoo since 2014. On Saturday, Harembe was put to death after a toddler had crawled through a barrier and fell into the gorilla’s enclosure. The boy, 4, was not injured in the fall.Harembegrabbed and dragged the boy. Zoo officials said the boy was in “imminent danger” during the 10-minute encounter. But not all are convinced the gorilla’s death was a necessary course of action.
Some blamed the parents, saying their neglect led to Harambe’s death. Many called for legal action against the parents.A petition was posted to Change.org Sunday morning, calling on the Cincinnati police and Cincinnati Zoo to hold the parents accountable for Harembe’s death. By Sunday evening, it had more than 15,000 signatures. A Facebook page, Justice for Harembe, fetched more than 7,400 likes mid-day Sunday.
Many social media users have used Harembe’s death as a platform to end zoos, saying the incident never would’ve occurred if animals weren’t kept in captivity:
Heartbroken over this Gorilla. #RIPHarambe Speechless, Sad, Angry … Ban Zoos as far as I’m concerned , serve no purpose other than grief
— RACHEL HUNTER (@rachelhunterx) May 29, 2016
Still others doubted the zoo’s course of action, saying the incident wasn’t aggressive, and the gorilla wasn’t dragging the boy, but instead protecting him:
