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I don't judge the mother but this made me consider an anti zoo stance, which before I had not considered. Between this and the baby bison conflab (plus new SeaWorld policy) it seems like people feel entitled to have access to animals. Clearly the gorilla was taking care of the child (as best as he knew how to do), which made the whole thing that much more gut wrenching.

@Mrs. Sketchbook: I feel exactly the same way! And I have never been anti-zoos. I know that some zoos do great things for animals who otherwise would have died in the wild but...just the fact that they're here for human entertainment? It's sad...and definitely not the way that it's meant to be.

Not to say that I won't ever take my kids to the zoo again (and I don't judge others)!

@ScarletBegonia: you may be right. When I was very young, the Baby-Jessica-in-the-well happened in my hometown, and her (teen) mother was one of my older sister's friends, and I don't remember this kind of backlash against the parents. Although I was super young, I sort of remember the opposite--that the whole country was hoping and praying for a rescue, not focused on whose fault it was that she was there in the first place.

I think this was all an unfortunate (and sad) series of events and I don't judge the mother. Accidents happen and no parent is perfect. I have never been to this Cincinnati zoo but I was at the Seattle zoo yesterday and our Gorilla enclosure was behind glass. There was no way a child would get in there unless the door was left open.

I do believe zookeepers (as most people who work around animals) truly love being around these animals and they had to make a very difficult decision to kill the animal.

I didn't see the whole video until recently but the first few seconds I did see made it seem like the Gorilla was protecting the child and wasn't doing much harm. I think it was CNN that released a longer video where the Gorilla was dragging the kid under water. That was terrifying to watch. I'm not a Gorilla expert but he did look threatened and I'm sure that made his actions very unpredictable.

There are so many details that unknown to us and I just can't judge. I think everyone involved is beating themselves up (the parents and zoo).

I did find this post on facebook from a fellow zookeeper and I agree with what they had to say. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1203379103029809&set=a.136952966339100.18704.100000731932790&type=3&theater

@oldsoulmama: to your depth perception comment- couldn't he have gotten to the ledge and lost his balance, not fallen? I don't think my almost 3 yo would jump but anyone could lose their balance for a second.

@oldsoulmama: I don't know what the enclosure looked like, but I was thinking more that he climbed up, planning to try to get in, saw how far of a jump it was but fell before he could climb back down? But yeah, he sounds like he was definitely trying.

@Foodnerd81: The lady that I know that was there said the kid didn't "fall". He was purposefully trying to get into the enclosure. And trying to get in quickly before anyone could stop him. There's a small stone wall just before the drop and he was up and over it without any hesitation.

@JenGirl: I'm certain someone will sue the zoo (not necessarily the mother) or force them to change something (barrier or process).

This was a tragedy all around and no amount of shaming or blaming will bring back Hambre either.

I think for most mothers this is a real and raw snippet of any day for any of us. Children are unpredictable and parents are humans who cant watch their children every single moment of their lives. We have all experienced a less than proud and humbling moment as parents but the difference is most of us have them in private, small scale scenarios not under the public microscope of the Internet.

What I find most telling of this story is how much we blame mothers. That children fall solely under their mother's provisions and any actions and help father's provide are more option or even heroic at times but mothers are expected to basically do everything without any praise or recognition and if they make a mistake receive all the blame when fathers can largely skate free from such responsibility.

@Mrs. Chocolate: My understanding is the father was not at the zoo with his family, hence the blame on just the mother as she was the only parent there. At the time of my original post I did not know that, and I specifically said "the parents" should have been properly supervising their child.

@Truth Bombs: I have read that the father was present but honestly its impossible to say what is true and what isnt now with a million stories circling this topic at this point.

My comment wasnt aimed at any one particular person here or on the larger Internet as a whole but just the general tone and wordage used as a whole during this stories coverage. I just feel the immediate response always is "Where is the mother?" whenever there is a story with a child involved. The mother could be away, not present, or not even in the child's life when the incident happened and thats still the number one question asked. Even if facts get corrected there are still a million people who dont read articles and just want to bandwagon jump on the blame train it seems.

But thank you for saying "parents" in your original posting. Its a nice change to read.

@pastemoo: I love your point about how often does your little kid say they are going to do crazy stuff? My 2 year old often tells me she is going to get in the car and drive to DC without me, but I'm not really concerned about that happening lol.
Also, the parents could be the most watchful parents in the world and still lose a kid for long enough that he could get in somewhere he shouldn't be. My daughter has ripped her little hand out of my hand, run away, and got into an elevator alone where she managed to shut the door! She was stopped only because she pushed the button to open the elevator door instead of the one to do down. I was holding her hand until she ripped away and I thought she went in the bathroom instead of the elevator. She could have easily escaped completely.

This is a sucky situation, but the experts that were on-site and responsible for handling the situation clearly felt that the gorilla needed to be put down in order to save the child and minimize risk to him. They would not undertake that decision lightly- if only for the fact that the gorilla is a significant asset to the zoo and would be very expensive to replace (plus I would imagine people that work in zoos like animals and would not tend to kill them for no reason). Even if the gorilla wasn't acting aggressively, there is no way to prevent the gorilla hurting a kid by mistake because they don't understand that human young are more delicate than gorilla young. I don't even really think it was the zoo's fault that the enclosure wasn't safe- it was just one of those crazy things that happens and has a sad ending.

This is my home zoo. I go often and will continue to go. The Cincinnati zoo has instrumental programs to saving endangered species. It's extremely upsetting to see that the gorilla had to be shot because of the incident. This has been the first incident since the habit opened in the 70's for more then 30 years nothing has gone wrong. It wasn't a decision they took lightly. The decision was 100% what they should have done given the risk to the child. I know it's not popular opinion but I think the mother should be charged with child negligent or endangerment. I am not saying accidents don't happen however several eye witnesses have said she didn't notice for several minutes (or until the commotion started) that her son was missing. Also it was appalling to me that she showed no remorse for the gorilla.

It's an incredibly sad story for everyone involved. I hope the zoo does reopen the gorilla habit soon and that there aren't 15 foot walls of glass encasing them. The habits created by the Cincinnati zoo are designed for the animals benefit and well being first and for most and then designed with zoo visitors in mind.

I think it's an incredibly sad and unfortunate situation that should never have happened. The mother should have been watching more closely, and I couldn't believe the Facebook status she posted... "accidents happen"? Uh, you could show a little remorse. A member of an endangered species had to be shot because your kid went rogue while you were distracted.

That being said, of course the zoo made the right call. That kid could have been killed in the blink of an eye. Also, people are going nuts about this but eat meat from factory farmed and inhumanely transported/slaughtered animals every damn day. There is a line people draw between one animal and the next and it seems very arbitrary to me.

@Synchronicity: if I was ever involved in a story like this, I would definitely shut down my Facebook account, not post an "accidents happen, all's well that ends well!" Post. I'm not saying my kid could never get away from me and I would never make a mistake. But I'd react differently afterwards for sure.

@Foodnerd81: @Synchronicity: i found her apparent lack of remorse for the gorilla off putting too at first.....but then i realized that when she wrote that post, she was probably still in shock and experiencing the aftermath of almost witnessing her child horrifically die. I realized that when i watched the video, i imagined for a second that it was my son trapped in there and getting dragged around- and in that second, the gorilla becomes nothing to me. I can only imagine that after her son was rescued, she was just beyond grateful that he was safe, regardless of how it had to happen and probably did not fully appreciate the impact of what had to happen.

@Foodnerd81: right, i don't think i would post about it either. But i don't know what it feels like to have the world shaming me, so maybe i would react different than i think. I guess she felt she needed to say something? and probably didn't think it through enough.

@Synchronicity: yup. i definitely agree she would be better off having not said anything. It's just my guess that she was still in shock and didn't think through her words. And now it sucks for her that they are forever ingrained on the internet. I could be wrong, maybe she has no remorse. I was just imagining that in that moment and the hours that followed, my focus, as the mother of the boy in the enclosure, would likely be on my son and his near death experience more than the gorilla . It is easier for everyone else to be more objective.

@Amorini: thanks for chiming in. I was wondering how this was going to affect zoos across the country (maybe even internationally). I'm sure there is a lot of talk in the zoo community now.

I saw something in the news today that officials are going to investigate the family. That really rubs me the wrong way. Yes, I'm sad that the gorilla was shot, but the little boy's life was in danger. I wish they hadn't had to shoot him, but I know deep down that it was the best option they had.

I also hate that as a society, we tend to have more sympathy for the gorilla than the child and his family. Did he (the boy) do something wrong? Absolutely. Kids can run away at any time, as I'm sure we all know. Did the mom do anything wrong? Probably not. Kids can disappear in a split second, like I said before. Did the zoo do something wrong? I definitely think that the enclosure could have been safer, but they did what they thought was best in this dangerous situation.

@Amorini: That is really interesting information! I know that the design of the gorilla exhibit at our zoo is very different from that (much of the public viewing is indoors separated by glass while the gorillas are outdoors).