Just about everyone in Ohio knows what happened at the Cincinnati Zoo last weekend. It was stupid and senseless and tragic — and lessons should be learned.
To say there are not lessons to be learned is intolerable and unacceptable.
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That’s when we human beings are at our worst: When we do not have second thoughts and do not try to discern the lessons that come from our mistakes, our shortsightedness, our follies, and the tragedies we create when we might have avoided them.
A 3-year-old boy crawled through the railings surrounding the gorilla enclosure at the zoo and fell into a moat within the enclosure. Harambe, a majestic 17-year-old silverback gorilla jumped into the water and went to the child, as the child himself and a horrified crowd screamed. It now seems clear that the gorilla was reacting in a protective way. A video shows Harambe and the child holding hands before Harambe dragged the child away from the noisy, and to him what probably seemed a threatening, crowd.
Experts say that the animal would have beaten its breast and approached the child peripherally had he meant him harm.
But the zoo decided to shoot and kill the gorilla.
Zoo officials should not have done that. They misjudged the animal’s actions. Moreover, zoo and law enforcement officials could have used a tranquilizer dart, which, if employed properly, would have put the animal down quickly. The tranquilizer and someone who knew how to shoot the dart, and in the proper dosage, should have been readily available.
The zoo director, Thane Maynard, says he would do the same thing if he had it to do over again. And for that, above all else, he should be fired.
You cannot be human and not make mistakes. But we have to recognize our mistakes, own up to them, and ask: What can we do differently now?
● All of us who are parents have had bad parenting days and made poor judgments. Most of us have lost a child, if only for seconds. The mom whose child wandered, crawled, and fell needs to take stock. Harambe would not be dead but for her irresponsibility. The child could have died as well.
● Toledo Zoo Executive Director Jeff Sailer engaged in a cop-out when he failed to condemn his fellow zoo director. That was not only regrettable, but shameful.
● There was a design flaw at the Cincinnati Zoo that made the enclosure permeable. That has to be fixed forthwith. Luckily, the Toledo Zoo has no such vulnerability. But our zoo director needs to reassure the Toledo public that something like this can never happen here and that shooting and killing rare animals will never happen here. If animals are not safe in zoos, then zoos have lost their moral justification. No animal should ever be killed in a zoo.
● Toledoans should boycott the Cincinnati Zoo and all things Cincinnati — even its poorly performing baseball team.
● Mr. Maynard must be fired, first, because the wrong thing was done and the buck stops with him. Harambe was not going to hurt the boy, and he should have known that. And the proper tranquilizer, properly and quickly applied, would have saved both lives. But Mr. Maynard should also be fired because he refuses to have second thoughts and consider how he could have done things differently. The very least we can ask of someone who exacts such a toll from a bad decision is that he be willing to learn.
First Published June 1, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
