The Internet is still in an uproar over the death of 17-year-old Harambe, the gorilla from the Cincinatti Zoo who was shot to death after a 4-year-old shimmied his way into his enclosure.
“I would have jumped in there after my kid,” is what people are saying in response to the mother who didn’t do just that. It is a fact that she did not jump in to attempt to save her child’s life but she did call the police.
Cincinnati police have finally released the audio from her call. Here’s how it went:
“…Hi my son fell In the zoo at the gorillas. The Cincinnati zoo. My son fell in love with the gorilla. There’s a male gorilla standing over him. I need someone to contact the zoo please.”
The dispatcher let her know there was already help on the way.
“Be calm. Be calm,” she shouted to her son. “He’s dragging my son. I can’t watch this. I can’t watch.”
The parents have also released a statement with an update about how the child is doing.
“Our child has had a checkup by his doctor and is still doing well. We continue to praise God for his grace and mercy and to be thankful to the Cincinnati Zoo for their actions taken to protect our child. We are also very appreciative for the expressions of concern and support that have been sent to us. Some have offered money to the family, which we do not want and will not accept.”
Jerry Stone, the Texas Zookeeper who raised Harambe says in memorial of Harambe that he was never mean or aggressive. He did however go into specifics about gorillas. He says that when Harambe got to be about 7-years-old he had to stop pay visits to Haramabe inside of his enclosure and started to interact with him from the outside because he claims his size and weight made him unsafe.
“The deal is they play rough. Once they get to over 100 pounds, if they smack your legs out from underneath you or grab you by the leg and drag you around they’re just playing but you will get hurt…So you stop going in their enclosures because if they play rough and you get hurt, that would be your fault,” Jerry told People.
He refused to comment on the zoo’s actions against Harambe but says he was “devastated” when he heard what had taken place.
The zoo plans to keep Harambe’s legacy going. They set up a Harambe Fund to support gorilla research and conservation efforts in Africa.
We also hear that shortly after Harambe had died, reproductive biologists extracted viable sperm from him with plans to use in genetic research and artificial insemination.
“There’s a future,” the Cincinatti Zoo director said. “It’s not the end of his gene pool.”
Long live Harambe.
Source: Complex, http://www.complex.com/life/2016/06/police-release-mother-911-call-cincinnati-zoo-gorilla-death
TSR writer: Chantel P.! @_popchanny on IG!
