Reserving Judgment- My thoughts on the Cincinnati Zoo incident

By now, you all have probably heard about the Cincinnati Zoo incident where a child fell into a gorilla enclosure, and the gorilla was fatally shot by zookeepers. If not you can read about it HERE.

I don't often write about current events for a number of reasons. One of them being that when I do it's usually in short, and on one of my FB pages, because it's a fleeting type of content. It's not content that one can look at in a year, two, or even five, and be able to relate to it like you might be able to most of the other entries I make on here. It loses it's appeal after so long, and literally becomes old news.

This story really bothered me for a number of reasons that I wanted to discuss on a wider forum that I feel an emotionally charged comment section just wouldn't suffice.  My facebook wall might do, but is limited in scope. That's why I decided to use my blog, and am unsure as to whether or not to leave the comments open, or whether I should mediate them.

The reason for my hesitancy on the comments section is the level of anger that I am seeing from the public. I get it. I do. An innocent animal lost it's life. It's really an awful thing to think about. We want there to be something, and someone to blame. There has to be. Right?

And, that is where I am not sure.


Are people, in their moment of heightened mob outrage possibly being a little too harsh on the mother in this situation? Was she possibly watching her son, and he just slipped away in a quick hurry?

From a bystander:

It also led several people on social media to question the mother’s culpability, but Ms. Nicely said it would be unfair to judge the mother too harshly.

“I don’t feel like it was neglectful,” she said. “She had three other kids that she was with. She had a baby in her arms. It was literally the blink of an eye.”

She added: “I saw it, and I couldn’t even prevent it. It happened so fast.”

I've been that kid who ran across all the barriers at the zoo to see the monkeys before anyone, including my mother, could stop me. She was watching me. I was just quick.

I have also been that mother with kids who were/are bolters.  I do watch them. I do teach them, but they have special needs that sometimes prevent them from not only understanding danger, but from thinking before moving. It happens. Autism exists. ADHD exists. Being a curious kid exists. All these things can, and do effect how a child might interact with their environment at any given time.

I also can hear the argument coming, well if she couldn't handle all of them then she shouldn't have taken them all out by herself. Maybe this was the first time she tried, and it just so happens it ended in tragedy that she could never have foreseen. Maybe, she doesn't have any help, and is just doing the best she can with what she has.

My point is......You don't know. You weren't there. You don't know the whole story. The people that were are saying she wasn't negligent. Maybe instead of jumping to every conclusion to condemn, and blame the mother we can try to extend some compassion in this tragic situation to everyone involved. A little bit of empathy for everyone involved.