As many know, Harambe, a silver back gorilla at the Cincinnati zoo was fatally shot over the weekend when a 4-year-old boy got into his enclosure. This comes a few days after the gorilla’s 17th birthday. The articles about it have been making the rounds; I’ve seen dozens of friends post about it in my feed alone, many of them non-vegan. We posted about it on our FB as well.
This is a terrible tragedy, but the public outcry is off the mark. There are plenty of people blaming the zoo, which is totally legitimate. There should be absolutely no way a child could get into a gorilla enclosure. That shouldn’t be possible. But what I’ve also seen a lot of is people blaming the child, and even more often the mother; “Fuck the parents for not watching their kid better. And you know what? Fuck the kid, too” a friend posted; “the mother should be charged with neglect,” a friend of a friend posted.
Can we stop blaming the child for getting into the enclosure? Kids do stupid stuff all the time. If every dangerous thing kids did actually resulted in death, we’d all be six feet under ( six feet under a pear tree, I want to be buried under a pear tree plz*). Kids’ brains are literally not finished forming, they can’t be blamed for doing dumb stuff.
But guess what, I’m not going to blame the parents either. First of all, kids are BANANAS. You cannot watch them EVERY second. Secondly, and more importantly, why would the mother possibly think taking her kid to a zoo was risking his life? Do you sign a waiver when you enter? Nope. We live in a society where zoos are billed as these amazing, enriching, kid-friendly places. In fact they are like THE kid-friendly place. We aren’t taught that these are dangerous places. Why wouldn’t the mother let her kid move over a feet to get a better look? I mean, this is the ZOO. This place is FOR kids.
And while I think the Cincinnati Zoo should have had an enclosure that a 4-year-old could not masterfully penetrate in his mysterious 4-year-old ways, it’s really not the fault of this single zoo. If the world needs someone to blame for Harambe’s death, blame the industry that put his life and this child’s life in danger. Blame an industry built on capitalism masquerading as enrichment and preservation.
We’re told zoos are these educational places but in reality, they are anything but. They aren’t about education, they’re about spectacle. I know there are some zoos that have programs to preserve species, but be honest, that’s not the purpose of a zoo. Zoos are side-shows. Kids can go gawk at a caged gorilla then buy a stuffed animal gorilla on their way out. They aren’t taught that these are dangerous, wild animals. They don’t learn about natural animal behaviors or environments. They learn nothing.
Actually that’s not true, they do learn one thing: animals are here for our entertainment. That’s a tragedy in and of itself.
I’m sad Harambe was killed, but I’m also sad for the way he lived, as a prisoner on display. As I’ve said before: fuck zoos.
*If you’ve never seen Foxes, you’re missing out.