Commentary: Why do we keep gorillas behind bars?

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Commentary: Why do we keep gorillas behind bars?

OPINION

By Peter Singer and Karen Dawn - Los Angeles Times



 

 

Posted: 9:14 a.m. Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Last month at the Cincinnati Zoo, a child got curious and a gorilla got shot. The 4-year-old boy crawled past a barricade and fell into a moat surrounding the enclosure housing Harambe, whose 17th birthday had been celebrated the day before. In the 10 minutes the two spent together, Harambe showed no intention of harming the boy, but he did drag him around the moat by the leg, with a speed and force that could have drowned him or cracked his skull.

 

Zoo officials chose to shoot Harambe as the only way to guarantee the child’s safety. Darting Harambe with a tranquilizer gun was judged too risky as the drugs don’t take immediate effect; the act might have enraged the gorilla before sedating him.

 

Public reaction has been varied. Some expressed fury at the zoo for shooting Harambe. Others argued “It’s a Gorilla; Get Over it,”

 

 

Instead of roaming the jungles of Africa, Harambe was confined to an enclosure where he had few choices as to daily activities, food, sexual partners or social interactions with others of his species. He was a well-treated prisoner who had committed no crime