Page 31 - JPGS Magazine

THE KILLING OF HARAMBE

On the 26th of May 2016, in the Cincinnati Zoo, Ohio, USA, a curious 3-year

old boy was fascinated by the gorilla exhibit of the zoo. As his mother looked

away, the excited young individual managed to crawl into the enclosure,
only to fall onto a flooded, rocky ground, ending up with injuries. Inside the

enclosure, he was approached by a large male gorilla, a beloved individual

named Harambe, who was a member of an endangered species of gorilla.

Harambe grabbed the child and started to drag him

across the water, as a large crowd watched,

terrified. At one point, Harambe stopped dragging

the boy, and somehow helped him get up, kind of
like a mother gorilla would do to her offspring.

After that, Harambe continued dragging the boy,

and that frightened the crowd even more. Some

people decided to record the whole thing. The
zookeepers had to act quick, as they saw the gorilla

as a massive threat to the boy, so they made the

decision to kill it. In response, one of them took his
rifle, and with one shot, Harambe dropped dead.

When this incident was reported on CNN, it caused a massive

outrage on the web from supporters of both sides of the story. Some

said that the zookeepers made the right decision, as the gorilla
looked like it was causing a threat to the boy, but the real outrage

was from people claiming Harambe was innocent. A lot of them

became very emotional about Harambe's tragic death, and said that
the gorilla must've taken the boy as his child. Gorillas are known for

dragging their offspring around like Harambe did to the boy and the

moment when he helped the boy get up was probably the strongest
piece of evidence as to why Harambe was innocent. The story also

caused lots of fresh internet memes (an internet joke) to be made,

which is probably why a lot of us laugh when Harambe is brought up.

OMAR BAKIR