It may not be good journalism yet, but I think it is entirely within bounds for the zoo and the police to be curious as to how the child got into that enclosure. If the parents have a history of suing businesses or something then it may be possible they put the child there.
“If the parents have a history of suing businesses or something then it may be possible they put the child there.”
I know what you mean, but in this exhibit the parents would have to literally catapult him over into the enclosure if he had not somehow crawled through to fall into the moat.
The viewers stand at eye level with the gorillas, but you are separated by a railing, a cement waist-high wall, feet of dense brush and a fence BEFORE you get to the deep moat that has the flowing water at the bottom which stands between people and the animals.
Reports from witnesses do not indicate the child was put there. They do say he told his mom he wanted to be with the gorilla. I don’t think that is a strange thing for a four year old to say. I also don’t think the mom was negligent for not taking him seriously. She probably thought there was no way for him to get down to the gorilla pit. From one witness account the mom noticed her son was missing very quickly and started to call and look for him.