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Gorilla at Cincinnati Zoo shot dead after boy fell into enclosure

The incident happened around 4 p.m. yesterday when the boy was visiting the zoo with his family. Zoo officials believe the four-year-old went under the rail enclosing the habitat, through some wire and then climbed over a wall leading to a moat in the enclosure. The boy then fell about 10 feet into the moat.

CNN reports there were three gorillas in the enclosure at the time. While two female gorillas were called out of the habitat, Harambe, a 17-year-old male western lowland gorilla, remained in the moat. While the gorilla did not actually appear to be trying to kill the boy, he picked him up and began tossing him around. This took place for about 10 minutes.

As with every dramatic incident that occurs when a lot of people are around, the gorilla and the boy in the moat were caught on video.

Fire and police were called. A member of the zoo’s security response team arrived and shot Harambe dead with one shot from a long rifle. Firefighters were then able to go in and retrieve the boy. The unidentified four-year-old was taken to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and while his exact injuries have not been revealed, they were described as serious but non-life-threatening. The boy was said to be conscious the entire time.

According to District Chief Marc Monahan, firefighters who arrived saw the four-year-old “dragged around and banged around pretty violently.” Thayne Maynard, director of the Cincinnati Zoo ,defended the decision to shoot and kill the 17-year-old gorilla. Maynard said the animal could not have been tranquillized because tranquillizers take some time to work and this was a life-threatening situation.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, it is not known how many western lowland gorillas there are because many live in dense jungles in Africa. The gorillas are native to the Central African Republic, the Congo, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The WWF classifies these gorillas as “critically endangered.”

The U.K. Mirror reports many people expressed their anger at Harambe’s death on social media. The anger was directed more at the boy’s parents for not watching him properly than at zoo officials.

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