Gorilla Shot After Escaping at Dallas Zoo, Where It Bit, Scratched Three People

AP ^ | 3-18-04

[Indy Pendance]

DALLAS (AP) - Police shot and killed a gorilla that escaped from its enclosure at the Dallas Zoo on Thursday and injured three people.

One adult and two children, ages 10 and 2, suffered minor injuries from the gorilla and were taken to area hospitals, Deputy Police Chief Daniel Garcia said. He said the three were bitten and scratched.

The zoo was evacuated after the animal escaped and police were notified. When the gorilla charged two officers, getting within 15 feet of them, they opened fire, Garcia said.

"We were forced to put this animal down," he said.

Garcia said police officers' objective was protecting citizens until authorities could figure out what to do with the gorilla.

Diana Gonzalez, a zoo patron, said she saw the animal banging on the door of its enclosure, and then it broke. The gorilla then scampered out of the gorilla pit.

Dallas zoo director Rich Buickerood said the primate was an inquisitive 13-year-old Western Lowland gorilla. He said the animal was likely "extremely excited and extremely fearful while it was out."

He said zoo officials are trying to figure out how the escape happened.

Last year, a 300-pound gorilla escaped twice in two months from Boston's Franklin Park Zoo.

In the second escape, he strolled around the zoo and the surrounding streets for about two hours and attacked a 2-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman. Both suffered minor injuries. The animal was sedated with tranquilizer darts.

The zoo reopened its gorilla exhibit last month without the escapee, named Little Joe, who now spends his time in a holding area away from the public.

[RedWhiteBlue]

I saw one of the most interesting interactions between humans and gorillas at the Washington Zoo. Part of the enclosure there is a glassed in room, where the gorillas spend a lot of time and people stand just on the other side of the glass watching.

When I was there, there were several adults, juveniles, and one baby in the enclosure. One of the juveniles was pestering the baby, constantly trying to get the baby to jump on his back to carry it around, pulling on the baby, trying to get the baby to play. You could tell that the baby wanted no part of it, but the juvenile would not let up. Finally, mama gorilla went to go rescue the baby from the pest, and she swooped it up .... and brought it over at set the baby right up against the glass where there where three toddlers (2 - 3 years old) on the other side of the glass. These kids went nuts, trying to give "hugs" to the baby through the glass.

It was as if momma gorilla was saying to the juvenile "I'll show you to be a pest! Since you won't stop, I'll let the baby play with the human children!"

But by far the most amazing experience I've ever had with primates is at the Singapore Zoo, when I fed a baby orangutan by hand that was on its mother's lap, while I was sitting next to them on a bench.

[SpookBrat]

Man, this is terrible news. How horrible. Those poor kids will be traumatized for life and never want to go to the zoo again. I feel sorry for the Dallas Zoo. This will be bad business. We always enjoyed the Ft. Worth Zoo more.

[SpookBrat]

That's terrible. People are so rude and disrespectful. At our zoo here in Jacksonville, there are signs every where that read, Don't throw food to the apes because we can transfer disease, etc.....people still throw food and ice.

Hope business will be ok and you won't lose your job.

[ambrose]

I work there. People are always teasing them, throwing rocks and things. Jabari learned quite early to throw them right back. I guess he had had enough of it.

That is despicable. The Zoo shouldn't allow people to torment its animals like that.

There's a nice little Zoo out in So California.. the Santa Barbara Zoo. Their gorilla exhibit is enclosed with strong plexiglass, viewable only from a downstairs room - so people can respectfully view the beasts without disturbing them. There is also plenty of private areas for the gorillas to retire to when they tire of being viewed by the zoo patrons.

[GOPyouth]

A relative told me last night that the helicopters were swarming around the grounds keeping the ape wound up after the escape.

[MeekOneGOP]

Pretty scary for the kids alright, I'm sure.

I was just running an errand and KRLD 1080 AM radio said they talked to a woman worker at the Zoo and that she had worked there for a long time. She said that there had been a monkey and a snake got loose in the past. This is the first gorilla to get loose, though. It was a faulty door on the gorilla unit that allowed it to get out ...

[RightWhale]

Hope they had something with a little more oomph than 9 mm pistols.

[RightWhale]

He looked me in the eye

At the Pittsburgh zoo the gorilla suddenly charged the bars on his cage while thumping his chest. Everyone jumped back, and the gorilla went back to sit down, his lip curled in a smile.

[Americanchild]

A relative told me last night that the helicopters were swarming around the grounds keeping the ape wound up after the escape. >>>>>>>>>>>>>

Absolutely! And we were mobbed with helicopters all day today! They wouldn't leave when asked to, even though many of the animals were in terror. Good way to insure another escape, huh?!

[Americanchild]

I'm not sure who they talked to, but at this time we still don't know how he got out. The exhibit is a deep pit with vertical rock sides and a high voltage wire at the top. The only door is INTO his night house, so going through that would not have let him into the public area.

[LibKill]

I've seen that look too, kind of eerie.

I'm not one of those PETA whack-jobs. I have eaten meat and hunted and so on.

I would not kill an orangutan unless my life was in danger.

They are not human, but they are the next thing too.

[potlatch]

Anywhere he wants to! You said it, Meek!!

[LibKill]

and the gorilla went back to sit down, his lip curled in a smile.

1. Apes ain't humans and are not included in our constitutional rights.

2. Apes are not cattle. They deserve better treatment than we give them.

3. God is watching us when we deal with the apes.

[LibKill]

So, I'm just Soylent Green?

That really hurts!

[dc27]

The Santa Barbara zoo is the best zoo I have ever been to.

[fish hawk]

Like my granny used to tell me: " if you kill it you have to eat it".

[LibKill]

The Santa Barbara zoo is the best zoo I have ever been to.

The world-famous San Diego zoo is the best I ever have seen.

The San Diego Wild Animal Park is even better.

I do have a little problem with putting chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas on display in zoos.

On the one hand, if there weren't such zoos, these apes might be extinct.

On the other hand, this is slavery.

[GeronL]

WOW. I heard nothing about this. See what happens when you take a couple of nights off from FReeping??

I had some family down in Seaworld San Antonio and they have reported that the sharks and killer whales did NOT escape.

[GeronL]

Never call the police unless you are willing to have them kill your problem. Sounds like the keepers were not doing their job. First, build the enclosure so the animals can't get out. Second, have a plan to evacuate the zoo and tranquilize any animals that escape anyway.

LOL. We're talking government agencies, ya know. Be prepared?? HA!

The Dallas Zoo is a dump. The FW Zoo is better but needs work... oh I think the FW Zoo was where they made that Barney goes to the Zoo video (LoL)

[auboy]

Gorilla Shot After Escaping at Dallas Zoo

How can this be? I thought Kerry was in Idaho.