4-year old Falls In Exhibit And Gorilla Shot Dead In Cincinnati Zoo | Controversy or Hypocrisy?

 A Sad Situation

Unless you have lived under a rock, you must have known about the death of Harambe. 

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To give a brief overview, Harambe was a 17 year old, 400lb silver back gorilla, who was recently moved to the Cincinnati Zoo in an attempt to help save his species.  A 4 year-old boy got separated from his mother and able to slip through the railings into the gorilla pit, which is about a 10 foot drop. He fell into a moat and Harambe pulled him out, yet park officials shot him in defense of the boy. There has been a lot of public outcry since then, clearly for the death of possible contributor of his species. 

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A few sites you can gain further insight and updates from are: NBC, The Dailymail, CNN, etc.
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The Controversy:

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-Park officials shot and killed Harambe for the protection of the child, despite the fact that he is an endangered species.


-Many are blaming the parents of the 4 year old for this happening.

-Harmabe seemed to be in a defensive stance of the child, suggesting that he was trying to protect him opposed to being potentially offensive.

-Many are suggesting that the park should've used tranquilizers rather than excessive force to take down Harambe.
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The Hypocrisy?:

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-Many are in an uproar due to silver backs being endangered, yet not everyone in that group take that extra step to research whether or not they support companies and industries that are destroying their environments in the first place. 

-Many blame the mother, yet it is common knowledge that children will always find a way to get in trouble. This sadly had horrible consequences. The child could've died from the fall alone, so for a silver lining it's good both did not die.

-Many who might turn a blind eye to issues presented in acknowledged police brutality, war, and world wide discrimination, hatred and sadness, find pain in the lose of a vital part of the silver back gorilla species' restoration. 
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 Rationality:

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Things happen and in reality the park seems to have done what they thought was the best possible for the child. Despite human beings being animals, we tend to place ourselves on higher pedestals from other animals (mainly due to our intelligence). We in turn tend to feel sadness and compassion when it is for animals we wouldn't "normally" eat, or animals we love to see for our viewing pleasure. 
 

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It would be silly to assume everyone who feels sorrow for Harambe's death has thoroughly investigated every product/service they have had to know if it contributes to the deforestation and poaching of animals we love to see.
As for those sending death wishes and saying the mother/son should be charged/killed, I would think being publicly blacklisted would be bad enough. The mother has to live the rest of her life with this guilt that those few seconds produced.
Her son almost died, and now has to also live forever as the "reason Harambe died". 
Cincinnati Zoo also has to face the backlash for an unprecedented and preventable situation from how they handled it the best way possible.
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All I see is a sad situation and I feel like there is so much we can learn from this situation. What do you think we can learn?

Love,
Gabby. XoXo

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P.S. I found this adorable picture of Harambe as a baby growing up in Gladys Park: 

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