12:19 AM Unknown
Sometimes a tragedy is just a tragedy.
This past weekend, a three-year old boy at a zoo in Cincinnati fell into a gorilla habitat and was dramatically dragged by the leg by a 450-pound gorilla. In order to protect the child, the zoo staff fatally shot the endangered primate. The boy escaped without serious injury.
I’ve been astounded by the angry reactions of people.
The most ridiculous reaction is from those who think the ape should not have been shot. Although the gorilla had not greatly harmed and in some ways acted protectively toward the boy, the great beast could have killed the child by accident or on a whim. You cannot reason with a gorilla or predict its behavior in a unique situation.
What’s really ridiculous is that some are angry because they feel like the gorilla should not have been shot, as if this 3-year-old boy deserved his fate because it was his fault he fell into the pit where he did not belong. Thankfully, this opinion seems to be rare.
People’s lives are more important than animal’s. If a snake, a dog or a gorilla threatens a child, you shoot the animal. You don’t sit by and hope for the best. I wonder how the people who protest react when they are bitten by a mosquito?
What isn’t rare is the instant vitriol aimed at the boy’s mother. “How dare she allow her child to fall into the pit!” they say. “She should face criminal charges!” they say. “I would never allow that to happen to my child!” they say.
What planet are these people from? How can they be that unaware of just how easy it is for kids to have an accident or get into trouble? I don’t have kids, and even I know.
Unless you watch your child hawkishly, every single second, which you could not possibly do if you have more than one child unless they were somehow tied together, your child could have an accident or get into trouble. If they were determined enough and it was physically possible, they could fall into a pit with a wild animal at a zoo.
In the past year, I’ve gone to two events with my sister and her two kids to zoo environments and my No. 1 concern was keeping track of those two kids. It was impossible to do so 100 percent of the time. That was with two adults and four eyes. These were field trips, so teachers and chaperones were watching literally dozens of kids and they were vastly outnumbered, so think of that.
At the Jacksonville Zoo, we were standing near the lion environment and my nephew was hanging on the wall, which was maybe chest high on me. I made him stop, but I thought then that if he wanted to climb over, he physically could. How long would that take? Maybe 4 seconds? Maybe 6?
At Okefenokee Swamp Park, there are no walls. The only thing keeping children away from the jaws of the many alligators there are the gators’ disinterest and the child’s natural fearful respect of the beasts. How long would it take a child to trip and fall and land right in front of an alligator?
But if one bit a child, these same people blaming the gorilla mom would be blaming the alligator mom.
So only if you watch your child every second can you honestly say that this mother is to blame, and even watching every second is not a guarantee.
But you can’t watch a child every second. Not even every minute. No one watches their child so obsessively, and if they did, just imagine the psychological damage it would do to that over-protected child.
If you’ve ever had a child fall and break a bone or hit their head and needed stitches and you weren’t watching them at the time, then you are basically in the same situation as this mother, at least as far as we know. And that’s OK, because sometimes stuff just happens.
Every day you’re driving down the road and putting your child in more danger than if you take your eyes off your child for a minute or two at a zoo. Wrecks happen all the time but I’ve heard of maybe two children ever falling into an animal habitat at a zoo.
Now, having said all this, I’m not saying the mother was being responsible as a parent. For all I know, she could have been texting on her cell phone for several minutes while paying little attention to her son.
But from what I’ve read, we don’t know exactly what she was doing immediately before her son fell into the pit, and based on what little information we do have, there is no reason to judge her.
Too often, people rush to judge and condemn people on little information and when there is a child involved the judgment seems to be more harsh, which I suppose is understandable. Often these condemnations are based on news stories that are told in a sensationalized manner, and I’ve learned there’s a lot of danger in that.
So the next time you read about a cop shooting a suspect or a child dying in a hot car or a child endangered at a zoo, hold off on judging. Wait until the whole story comes out, and then, well, you probably shouldn’t judge then either, unless you’re on a jury.
But then again, who am I to judge you?
