Kaley Cuoco, Katharine McPhee and some other celebrities expressed their outrage over Cincinnati zoo's decision to kill the gorilla rather than tranquilize it.
- May 31, 2016
AceShowbiz -
Harambe, a silverback gorilla in Cincinnati zoo, was shot and killed on Saturday, May 28 after a 4-year-old boy fell into the animal's enclosure. Following the incident, a lot of celebrities took to social media to speak out about the decision which the boy's mother and the zoo made to save the child, who was dragged by the large animal.
Some of Hollywood's biggest names expressed their disappointment over the decision to shoot the gorilla rather than tranquilize it. Katharine McPhee tweeted, "This is why I hate zoos! This is so messed up. This poor gorilla."
Kaley Cuoco posted a photo of the gorilla on Instagram as she suggested that an amazing animal shouldn't live in captivity. "another senseless horrendous animal being killed over people not using their brains. If you watch the footage, you see this gorgeous animal holding that child's hand," she captioned the photo. "Do with that ,what you will. As sad as this makes me, a part of me is happy for that amazing creature doesn't have to live in captivity another day."
Ricky Gervais shared, "It seems that some gorillas make better parents than some people." Lisa Vanderpump also chimed in, "Oh the poor gorilla, he did nothing wrong, if you watch the video, so sad..as a mother I would've jumped in too. WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING. SAVE OUR ANIMALS."
Meanwhile, D.L. Hughley slammed the boy's mother, "If you leave your kid in a car you go to jail, if you let your kid fall into a Gorilla Enclosure u should too!" Robin Williams' daughter Zelda Williams also wrote on Twitter, "You 'display' wild animals in cages for money, but then you don't properly protect them or the kids visiting them from each other? Shameful," she said, adding, "How was the gorilla enclosure not child proof? You're dealing with an endangered species & yet you've made it possible for kids to fall in?"
While many people call out the zoo for killing the animal, the zoo's director Thane Maynard defended their decision to use lethal force. "The idea of waiting and shooting it with a hypodermic was not a good idea," Maynard said at a press conference. "That would have definitely created alarm in the male gorilla. When you dart an animal, anesthetic doesn't work in one second, it works over a period of a few minutes to 10 minutes. The risk was due to the power of that animal."
