Zoo director: Shooting, killing gorilla was right call

In a press conference Monday, zoo director Thane Maynard cautioned against anyone watching a widely viewed viral cell phone video and deciding they understand the situation.

He said zoo staff and first responders on the scene were “unanimous” in agreeing at the time that the boy was in imminent danger, being dragged about, his head bouncing against concrete.

“They are Monday morning quarterbacks or second-guessers who don’t understand that you don’t take risks with a Silverback gorilla,” Maynard said of critics. “They’re tough — bigger than a man and six times stronger than that.

“We’re talking about an animal with one hand, that I’ve seen, take a coconut and crush it,” Maynard added. “He was disoriented. He never had anything like that going on. That also led to the decision of course not to dart the animal.”

After the gorilla — named Harambe — was killed, the boy was safely pulled from the enclosure and sent to a hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. The boy was released Sunday.

Anthony Seta, an organizer of a vigil for the gorilla at the zoo Monday, called the event and its turnout “bittersweet.”

“I don’t want to be here,” Seta said. “There are better things out there to do on Memorial Day. We’re here for a tragedy. Nothing else. We don’t want to be here. Something like this should never have happened.”

Media reports say more than 60,000 people have signed a Change.org petition to create a law — dubbed “Harambe’s law” — that would hold zoo visitors accountable for the well-being of endangered animals held in zoos.

Maynard said the zoo is reviewing the incident all while also insisting that the barrier surrounding the gorilla exhibit is and has been “adequate.”

“We’re looking at it to determine what the optimal situation is,” Maynard said. The enclosure over the next year or so will also be redesigned he said, with the exhibit being doubled in size, an important move for the zoo’s gorilla breeding program.

The barrier was about three feet high, with about four feet between the barrier and a 15-foot drop zone leading into the gorilla enclosure.

“The zoo is a safe place,” Maynard said. “This is the one time this sort of thing has happened in 143 years.”

Zoo staff reviews safety regularly and has a safety team that prepares for incidents like this, he said.

Global following, viral video

A boy is led away after putting flowers beside a statue of a gorilla outside the shuttered Gorilla World exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Monday, May 30, 2016, in Cincinnati. A gorilla named Harambe was killed by a special zoo response team on Saturday after a 4-year-old boy slipped into an exhibit and it was concluded his life was in danger. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Some forty-eight hours after the event, the story led Drudge.com, a widely followed news aggregation site. CNN, Fox News, the BBC and other sites all carried their own versions of the story, often on those sites’ front pages.

Cell phone video of the gorilla dragging and tossing the child about prompted simultaneous backlash from different directions: Observers wondered how a child could get past barriers to the enclosure while some insisted that the gorilla was simply trying to protect the child. Some on social media faulted family members for not watching the boy. Others argued that zoo responders simply had no choice, given the clear circumstances.

The incident happened shortly after two lions were shot dead in a Chilean zoo last week when a man entered their enclosure in an apparent suicide attempt.

Maynard said the shooting of the gorilla was unfortunate, and the animal is mourned. And he added, “We are very glad the little boy is OK.”

To critics and those examining the zoo’s decisions, Maynard was direct: “In the real world you make difficult calls. But you have to make them.”

He said that once zoo staff realized what had happened, they responded and and so did Cincinnati firefighters.

The male gorilla, however, did not respond to entreaties to leave the enclosure, as two female gorillas there did.

Those who were at the zoo monitoring the situation were “unanimous” in agreeing that the child was in danger, Maynard said of staff and firefighters.

An anesthetic shot would not have worked immediately, he said.

“In my eyes, he was acting erratically,” Maynard said. “He was disoriented. He was acting strange.”

“This was very important to us … we had a very, very difficult situation, and we made a very, very difficult call,” he added.

“The child was at risk. We are very fortunate” that the child was not permanently harmed, he said.

Barrier questioned

A vigil for Harambe the gorilla runs from noon to 2 p.m. May 30 at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. Supporters of the gorilla line the street outside the zoo’s entrance. KATE BARTLEY/STAFF

Maynard argued that animal enclosure barriers are designed to keep animals in and zoo visitors out. But there is no perfect barrier, he said.

“Whatever the barrier is, someone can get past it, much the same way you might lock your car and sometimes people get into the car,” he said.

“Anyone in this room could climb over barriers if they choose,” he added later in a press conference.

The Cincinnati zoo has more than 1.6 million visitors a year.

The zoo has not yet been in touch with the boy’s family, who have requested privacy, the director said. There has been no legal action as of Monday afternoon, he said.

He said the zoo will continue its gorilla breeding program.

A statement from the family of the still unidentified boy was released Sunday from PR firm Gail Myers Public Relations LLC.

“We extend our heartfelt thanks for the quick action by the Cincinnati Zoo staff,” the statement said. “We know that this was a very difficult decision for them, and that they are grieving the loss of their gorilla.”

Maynard said Harambe’s genetic lineage is preserved through viable sperm and tissue deposits. “We lost an incredibly magnificent animal,” he said.

Responding to a question at the press conference, the director said police have issued no charges in the case.

Maynard said that this was the first time a zoo visitor had entered the gorilla enclosure exhibit in 38 years. This was also the first incident in which a zoo animal had to be killed, he said.

The zoo’s gorilla exhibit is temporarily closed, but the zoo hopes to open it next weekend.