Posted on 06/01/2016 9:08:57 AM PDT by drewh
Cincinnati police said Tuesday that their review will focus on the actions of the boy's parents and family. It is not related to the operation or safety of the Cincinnati Zoo, authorities said.
"After the review, we will determine if charges need to be brought forward," police spokeswoman Tiffaney Hardy said.
"If it is determined charges need to be brought forward, we would then discuss it with the Hamilton County prosecutor's office." The prosecutor's office declined to say how long the investigation might take.
Authorities have said the boy's mother was with the child when he slipped past a fence and tumbled into the moat.
Uproar and vitriol has poured in, especially on social media against the boy's mother after zoo officials killed the western lowland silverback to protect the boy.
Some suggested the boy's parents should be held criminally responsible. An online petition seeking "Justice for Harambe" earned more than 100,000 signatures in less than 48 hours.
"This beautiful gorilla lost his life because the boy's parents did not keep a closer watch on the child," the petition states.
Kimberly Ann Perkins O'Connor, who saw the incident, said the boy told his mother he was going to get into the moat. The mother told her son to behave before she became distracted by other children with her, O'Connor said.
"The little boy himself had already been talking about wanting to go in, go in, get in the water and his mother is like, 'No you're not, no you're not,' " O'Connor said. "Her attention was drawn away for seconds, maybe a minute, and then he was up and in before you knew it."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
A increase in wall height, and netting would discourage kids and suicidal adults from jumping in......If we don’t thin the herd, we may end up with a world of Democrats.
The herd did not get thinned, a gorilla was killed. I bet you this kid is a handful at home, but a 3 foot wall with a drop and no safety barriers is asking for trouble.
I’ve said that on a thread a couple of days ago-it is a sensible solution, shuts down the hysteria and doesn’t cost the taxpayers money for “investigations”-that mother was careless-but she isn’t a criminal. It is also what would happen to one of us if our kid destroyed a valuable artifact at an archaeological site, or caused the death of an expensive animal at one of the wildlife sanctuaries or game parks-there are several of them out here. Keep your kids under control, or be liable for the damages they cause-no excuse for that lack of parental supervision...
Netting was tried at one of the wildlife parks out here-netting up to 7 ft-it did not stop determined kids, and the park’s insurance carrier insisted on better barriers-a 7 ft chain link fence with a low electrical charge was installed instead-that does work...
I’ll reserve judgement until I see whether or not the family sues.....If they sue, then I know for a fact they are pieces of excrement and it is probably their fault, if not, then I’m all on their side.
A woman who stood next to the kid said he was up and over the 3 foot barrier and into the enclosure in a matter of seconds. That means that the facility was not child friendly, which a zoo should be, because children is their main audience. Kids are running all over the place in zoos, and the facility should recognize that.
I like the idea of electric fencing, enough to zap an intruder, but not enough to injure them.
The parents should not sue, because their child’s actions caused the gorilla to die, even though the zoo carries a huge part of the liability.
I wonder if the Zoo might have grounds to sue the parents, if they can prove negligence. They have damages....loss of the tourist revenue the gorilla brought; time their workers had to take from their regular duties to deal with this situation, etc.
Based on parents’ comments here, it’s impossible to make anything child proof.
Does this mean we have to shut down zoos everywhere?
When a child can scale something in a matter of seconds, then it is not adequate protection. There should have been a secondary barrier. Not only that, a crazy person can shove an innocent person into the gorilla pit because a 3 foot wall is not enough height. Zoos can use fencing and glass.
If you look close the problem becomes quickly Apparent....at least to me
Just beyond the fence, between the fence and the moat wall, there is vegetation that is grown up and dense. The kid was taken to the zoo and to see the gorilla but couldn’t. At his height, his view was blocked by the bushes. Not to worry he thought, I’ll climb up the fence. Still can’t see, I’ll climb over the fence. He went a step too far and off the moat wall cliff
“You can’t control any human being 100%.
Kids don’t need to climb in and play with gorillas, but they do need freedom. We don’t want to be East Germany.”
This is pretty illogical.
So since we don’t want to be East Germany, kids should get to climb into zoo enclosures?
If they need freedom, let them run in a park not create havoc in a zoo.
I had a wannabe wild boy, but there were times he was expected to behave. Zoos, where he could get hurt or hurt an animal, was one of them. Or he didn’t get to go.
It’s called parenting. There’s a lot here making excuses for not taking the effort. If a kid is known to not listen, he either needs to stay home or bring more adults - easy solution. But not in our liberalized, no-responsibility world.
That’s not it - he wanted to go into the water. And wasn’t used to being told no and having his mother mean it.
I live here in Cincy and I take my kid to the zoo. I was going to chime in with first hand experience as seen through the eyes of responsible parenting and reading of posted zoo rules and safety precautions but I see we have a complete panel of experts here who have already passed their judgement.
While some kids were running all over the place in the zoo, kid-friendly restaurants, etc, mine was never, ever allowed to do such a thing-my husband was in the military when she was small, and we expected certain behavior in public places from the gitgo-he and I had been brought up the same way-namely, be polite and don’t let go of mami’s hand, no matter what.
The way parents let kids run amok just about everywhere in the last 20 years or so in cities is one of the reasons I live in the country-everyone’s manners and sense of responsibility is still intact...
Although my dad was in the military, most of my childhood and teen years were lived on the family ranch, because my mom and one of my aunts did not want their kids in/around what they considered unsafe places.
We could run wild on the ranch-but stay away from the cattle pasture, etc-but when we were in a public venue-store, zoo, restaurant, whatever-when we were under 6-7, we wore those little harnesses and leashes and when we were older we were expected to stay close and behave like civilized kids-if we did not, we got a reminder hissed in our ears, and our moms threatened to take us back to the vehicle we came in-we never knew what would happen then, but the threat was enough to make us settle down-it is what I used to with my cub, too and it worked just as it had when I was a kid, but I suppose that would be child abuse now...
Nothing is absolutely safe. Parents need to watch their children to ensure they don’t scale the wall or duck under the fence. Why is that such a controversial idea?
Nonsense. Don't be hysterical.
What zoo makes a fence around a gorilla enclosure and spaces the bars so widely that a 3 year old child can squeeze through?
The zoo will be lucky if it's not sued...
Our oldest daughter was a handful. By the time she was two, my brother had already nicknamed her, ‘NAFOD’. As a Navy pilot , that was the term used to explain a risky maneuver or some such answer in an investigation: No Apparent Fear Of Death. She’s in her mid-20’s now....somehow :)
Been to our Zoo? If you did you would know a kid can’t squeeze through. The kid was unsupervised and climbed up and over. As for the parents suing the zoo, they are declining any donations and have asked that people should donate to the zoo instead. So many experts.....
Because if it takes a couple of seconds for a four year old to scale a wall, then the zoo is not safe.
A 3 foot fence is not difficult for a child to climb over
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