On Saturday, May 28th, a family entered the Cincinnati zoo oblivious of what was to happen later that day. The onset of this horrific and tragic event began when a 3-year old boy was endangered and trapped with the zoo’s gorilla, Harambe. How did this happen, you might ask? The boy entered the Cincinnati zoo with his family, including his other three siblings. The mother turned her back to focus on the needs of the children, only then to realize her son had gotten himself cornered in the gorilla’s habitat. Witnesses were horrified to see the boy being dragged and pulled by the 17 year old, 450 pound western lowland gorilla with the situation unfortunately concluding with the death of Harambe.

The zoo claimed to have had no choice but to shoot Harambe to save the little boy’s life following the interaction between them. While the zoo was devastated to have lost such a beautiful animal, they believe the life of the animal did not compare to the life of a human. The dangerous animal response team had evaluated every decision including tranquilizing the 450 pound gorilla. However, the downfall to it would be taking the risk of aggravating the animal, with the process taking up to 30 minutes for the gorilla to become unconscious. The said child, according to witnesses, had told his mother minutes before that he was going to climb down into the gorilla’s habitat. Right when the mother turned the other direction, the boy had climbed through the wire fences, through the thick bushes, and fell about 10 feet.

This situation has been plastered on front newspapers, online news source, TV reports and on social media. The publicity of this story has given people the opportunity to express their opinions on it. There have been responses on either end of the spectrum of the situation including comments regarding the zoo’s choices and the mother herself; in addition, internet jokes in the form of memes* have surfaced. Some people believe that shooting and killing Harambe was the right decision however, others also believe that Harambe didn’t deserve the treatment he received.The trend “Justice for Harambe” which was created by activists who believed that Harambe was truly the victim in this situation, created an online petition was constructed and had received over 8,000 signatures prior to the 24 hours it was released; their main goal being to ensure appropriate legal forces are applied to this controversy. They believed that the real person in fault of this situation would be the little boy and more specifically the boy’s mother.

 Harambe, a gorilla placed in the Cincinnati zoo, was deeply loved but when the situation was deemed as a possible threat to the little boy, they decided to execute him. Harambe had suffered from a gunshot wound, killing him, before safely extracting the little boy back to safety. Whether or not people think that was the right decision, the little boy is alive at the price of Harambe the gorilla’s life. Some are still seeking justice that puts the zoo or the mother in sole responsibility. Overall, people are still wondering if killing Harambe was the rational decision.

*Internet memes are a way of people to spread ideas or conceptions via online, and most times it would be presented with an image of a person or animal, followed along with a clever caption.