USDA, Cincinnati police to investigate gorilla zoo incident
CINCINNATI — The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Cincinnati Police Department are investigating the incident that led to the death of Harambe, the Cincinnati Zoo's 17-year-old western lowland gorilla Saturday.
Zoo officials killed Harambe, a 450-pound silverback gorilla, after a child fell into the gorilla exhibit.
As the agency charged with enforcing the Animal Welfare Act and Endangered Species Act, zoo officials said Monday the USDA would be investigating the incident.
"We take safety very seriously," said Thane Maynard, the zoo's director. "That's an ongoing process."
On Tuesday, a Cincinnati police spokesman confirmed that investigators are "looking at the facts and circumstances" that led a 4-year-old boy to end up in the moat surrounding the exhibit.
Lt. Steve Saunders said, "it's too early to say whether it was recklessness on the part of the parent.
"We're just doing our due diligence to make sure we know what happened," Saunders said.
Tuesday was the first time police formally acknowledged that an investigation is underway in Saturday’s incident. Fire officials said the boy was between the gorilla’s legs at the time it was shot.
Gorilla World's barrier setup exceeds required protocols and has been in place for 38 years without incident, Maynard said. Exhibits are inspected by the USDA twice a year and by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums every five years for accreditation, he said.
"The exhibit is safe, the barrier is safe," he said. "The zoo was not negligent."
Even so, Maynard said the exhibit, which he describes as "very similar" to gorilla exhibits at other zoos, is under review. Zoo officials are looking to see what, if anything, needs to be done to reinforce the barrier. He could not say whether additional measures would be in place when the exhibit reopens, which he hopes will be Saturday.
Zoo officials also will review other areas around the zoo to see what, if any, improvements should be made to protect the zoo's 1.6 million yearly visitors, as well as its animals.
"It's unprecedented," Maynard said. "We have never had to kill a dangerous animal in the middle of an emergency situation. The zoo's been here 143 years, so that's saying a lot."
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said in a statement Tuesday that after the police investigation is completed, his office will "confer with" police about possible criminal charges.
New details emerge on incident
Maynard offered more specific details about Saturday's incident. Zoo officials have pieced it together as follows:
Just before 4 p.m., a 4-year-old boy went over a stainless steel rail that's a little more than 3 feet high, with vertical bars every eight feet. He made his way through the bushes to the edge of the moat, a distance of approximately 4 feet. From there, he dropped 15 feet to the moat, into a foot and a half of water. The boy, who has not been identified yet by authorities, started splashing around.
Keepers tried to call the gorillas inside. Two females in the exhibit complied. Harambe did not.
Zoo visitors — and there were plenty of them, more than 7,000 on Saturday — reacted.
Harambe heard the commotion. Then, he spotted the child. The gorilla went down into the water and grabbed the boy by the ankle. Harambe carried the boy up a ladder to dry land and continued dragging him around.
A security team emptied the exhibit. Soon, the zoo's dangerous animal response team dispatched Harambe with a single shot.
The decision was not made lightly, Maynard said. The child's life was in danger.
"This child was being dragged around; his head was banging on the concrete," Maynard said. "This is not a gentle thing. The child was at risk."
Tranquilizing Harambe would not have taken effect instantaneously and might have resulted in displaced aggression toward the child, Maynard said. And with Harambe's strength, such aggression could have been extremely dangerous.
Western lowland gorillas are three times bigger than a human, with arms as big as our legs, and about six times stronger, Maynard estimated. The zoo director had seen Harambe, who weighed in at more than 420 pounds, crush a coconut with one hand.
And the gorilla, known by his keepers as being handsome, smart and easy to train, was already "agitated and disoriented" by the boy's presence.
"In the real world, you make difficult calls, but you have to make them," Maynard said. "The safety of that child was paramount.
"We stand by our decision," he said. "We’d make the same call."
The boy was taken to a local hospital with "a concussion and a few scrapes," his mother said in a Facebook post.
In a statement Sunday, the family said he was "doing just fine" and thanked zoo staff for their quick action.
'You can't take a risk with a silverback gorilla'
Maynard addressed the numerous people on social media and elsewhere who don't agree with that decision.
"People who question that or are Monday morning quarterbacks or second-guessers don't understand that you can't take a risk with a silverback gorilla," he said.
The Cincinnati Zoo has received messages of sympathy and empathy from zoo personnel from around the world, up to and including Jane Goodall.
"People that know gorillas well — people who research them in the wild, people who work with them in captivity — know exactly what decision was made and why," he said.
He also declined to place blame, which the social media frenzy surrounding the incident has done in large quantities, with venom particularly aimed at the boy's mother for not watching him more closely.
The Cincinnati Zoo, Maynard said, is "taking responsibility."
"I'm not a big finger-pointer," he said. "Politicians and pundits point fingers. We live in the real world and we make real decisions. People, kids and others, can climb over barriers."
He equated it to locking your house or your car. "If someone really wants to get in, they can," he said.
However, he did see a lesson to take away. “Everybody should keep a hold of their kids and keep an eye on them, here or anywhere," he said.
Maynard said zoo officials have not been in touch with the boy's family and that the zoo does not intend to press any charges. He doesn't know whether there will be other legal ramifications for the zoo or family, but he is hopeful there will not be.
Maynard said the incident won't impact plans for a $12 million expansion to Gorilla World expected to be completed next year.
Overall, Maynard pointed out the incident was sad, but could have been worse.
"Harambe was one of our most magnificent animals and a critically endangered species," he said. "It is a big loss. That said, we are very glad that the little boy is OK. That is one happy thing in a dangerous and sad story."
Lebanon Daily News' readers weigh in on the Cincinnati Zoo incident.
While Hershey’s ZooAmerica declined to comment on the incident, and the Philadelphia Zoo did not return repeated calls for comment, local residents have weighed in via the Lebanon Daily News Facebook page on the Cincinnati Zoo incident.
Some residents felt that the child’s parents were the main reason the incident occurred.
“I understand why they did what they did, but still think parents should be charged with neglect,” Lebanon resident Lori Thomas said.
“So, they killed him [Harambe the gorilla] because mommy wasn't watching her son?” Karen Halbert Ferguson, Annville, said. “That's just awesome.”
“I also hope the family's statement included an apology for the child's action, and shows remorse that their negligence brought about the death of the gorilla,” Fredericksburg resident Tom Walker said.
Some Facebook commenters felt that Harambe should not have been shot despite the plight of the 4-year-old boy who was in the enclosure with the gorilla.
“So it was smarter to shoot a bullet at the gorilla while he has the boy than to tranquilize him?” Nelson Lutz of Middletown asked. “The mom should be in jail”
Others felt the zoo made the correct decision, but that the incident could have been avoided.
“Tough situation, correct call, unfortunately,” Cindy Weiss Skinner said. “The child will now be traumatized because of his actions and them shooting the gorilla. Hopefully this will make parents watch their children so this does not have to happen again.”
“While I agree that the parents of this child are lacking a lot of common sense, a child's life hung in the balance when they made the decision to kill the gorilla and possibly save the child's life,” Tim Diamond, Lebanon, said. “It was the right call.”
One commenter felt the zoo was at fault.
“I can't believe people think the parent should be charged when a zoo’s primary audience is children,” Carisa Carpenter said. “It would make more sense to expect the zoo to better secure the gorilla’s area than to blame a mother.”