The shooting of an endangered lowland gorilla in Cincinnati Zoo to save a child that had fallen into the animal’s enclosure on Saturday has evoked major reactions on Twitter. A debate as to who should shoulder responsibility for the child’s safety has also risen, wherein people are questioning the grounds on which an animal was shot, inside a zoo.
Zoo director Thane Maynard told Fox News that shooting down the animal was the only way to save the child, who had already been in the enclosure for 10 minutes with the gorilla. Tranquilizing the animal would also have taken a longer time. Opinions remain divided as to whether the gorilla was dragging the child around to protect him, play with him or just out of agitation.
“They made a tough choice and they made the right choice because they saved that little boy’s life,” Maynard said. “It could have been very bad.”
But Twitterati was not ready to buy the zoo’s explanation, making their opinion quite clear through these tweets:
(Feature Image Source: Twitter)