Should We Have Shot Harambe? Today marks the one year since Harambe was shot. Did we make the right decision? Watch as we discuss all the options that the...
  • erik_houdini
    20·
    2 years ago

    Yes this was the only way to avoid the 2018 HRC No Fly Zone escalations against Iran. Listen man, the gorilla was cool but you could be in a far worse timeline.

  • loathsome dongeaterAEnglish
    141·
    2 years ago

    Tbh I am don’t know anything about the behaviour of gorillas but imagining a child trapped with one fills me with an impending sense of doom

    • ComradeSalad
      13·
      2 years ago

      It has happened before. It’s a complete toss up and not worth the risk.

      One incident had a female matriarch care for an injured child, protect them from hostile males, and then lay them at the service door so that zoo staff and paramedics could safely retrieve the child.

      Other incidents, primarily by males, have had the gorillas drag the kids around like rag-dolls or beat them to death. Even a probing “love-tap” from a fully grown silverback is usually fatal to a regular child.

      Harambe was curious and checking out the child, but that could have changed in an instant for any reason. It would have taken a fraction of a second for him to kill the kid.

    • OhHiMarx
      6·
      2 years ago

      I felt the same way at first but you have keep in mind that the gorilla is pretty capable of defending itself

      • ComradeSalad
        6·
        2 years ago

        Not against a fully grown child. That’s usually a one sided encounter. Coughing baby vs Hydrogen bomb. Harambe stood no chance. A gorilla would be instantly mauled by a child.

  • 201dberg
    10·
    2 years ago

    To save a kid? Probably yeah, and I mean, that guy is gonna live the rest of their life knowing that, at least for a time, they were one of the most hated people on the internet. Their family had to go into hiding and delete all their social media due to the harassment. So regardless of if one blames them for it, they have paid for it.

  • Jennie
    8·
    2 years ago

    It is sad but yeah, it was necessary in this case. A tranquilliser can take up to a few minutes to take effect and would not have guaranteed the kid’s safety.

    The overall issue however is not whether it was justified in this case but the zoos themselves. It is absolutely evil in my eyes to entrap animals in cages and exploit them for entertainment. The entire zoo industry is disgusting and needs to be rid of.

  • GiyuuEnglish
    8·
    2 years ago

    I don’t know if there is any important or necessary conservation of gorillas done by this zoo in particular, but it is as barbaric to have these animals in captivity for amusement as it is barbaric to kidnap people from far away lands and use them as entertainment.

    And even if their goal is conservation, there is still a contradiction in having to display the gorillas for human entertainment to make money to support them.

    Harambe is a victim of capitalism no matter which way you slice it.

  • CITRUS
    3·
    2 years ago

    Harambe apparently means communal labour in Swahili

    • ComradeSalad
      111·
      2 years ago

      Harambe was caring for the kid by dragging him like a rag doll around the moat while running and almost drowning him? Or was it the part where he slams the boys face into a concrete floor before dragging him across the enclosure by his leg again?

      Gorillas are not known to care for human kids. They could care less. All it would have taken was for the kid to look Harambe in the eye, make a movement he didn’t like, or a sound he didn’t like, and with one love tap Harambe would have sent him to the moon.

      The incident you’re probably referring to of “gorillas caring for human kids”, was one isolated event, and the gorilla only did that because she was the clan matriarch, and the zookeepers had trained her over multiple years to take her children to the rear service door if they were ever badly injured. She also had to fight off the males who tried to territorially defend against the unconscious kid.

        • ComradeSalad
          71·
          2 years ago

          It doesn’t matter if they play with their kids like that. It would have killed a human child. Do you know how fragile a three year old is?

          Also that is not true at all. Do you have a source for gorillas playing by dragging their children around and banging them against the ground while almost drowning them? They play wrestle yes, but that was not playing.

          Also I know about all those incident you linked, I described one of them in my first reply. Notice how there are no others showing the opposite side of things. Mostly because human death and gore are banned on YouTube.

          Also I know the people screaming didn’t help. But that doesn’t change the effect.

          How do you think the situation would have played out? Do you really think you know more then the staff of two zoos? The Cincinnati zoo weren’t the ones who shot him, the Gorilla research center in Miami where Harambe was from advised the zoo to shot as the chances of the child not being critically injured or killed was low. Do you really think you know more about Gorillas then people who’ve spent their whole lives studying them?