I was at a big BBQ yesterday. When we add together all of the burgers, dogs, and drumsticks everyone ate yesterday it must add up to a few chickens, a couple pigs, and a good portion of a cow. It was tasty. I think we kill like 100k cows, 300k pigs, and almost 25 MILLION chickens a day to feed people in this country. I understand we don't have a ton of gorillas left and I understand that some animals are cuter or more "personable" than others. But seriously, they're animals. Suggesting that we should let a child die before killing any animal for any reason, even if the child was responsible, is insane.
People get nuts about this stuff when a dog or cat is killed, a gorilla is shot, someone hunts a lion and posts a facebook picture. It's so emotional and devoid of any kind of logic. The number of animals we slaughter because they're tasty, every single day, is like an ocean to a dixie cup compared to the things that happen in these news stories. I don't want animals to suffer needlessly, animal cruelty should be punished, we should steward what we've been given the best that we're able. But taking a human life, any human life over an animal's life, any animals life is ridiculous.
And I don't know who is suggesting these parents get shot or lose their kids or whatever else but I'm guessing most of them don't have kids. This exact thing happens to parents all over every single day. Every day a kid gets lost at the mall or at the park or runs off in a store or accidentally tumbles down some stairs. If you're a parent and you tell me you've never had that moment when you've spun around in a panic because you've lost your kid for a moment then I'll call you a liar. It happens to us all occasionally. In this case the danger wasn't due to extra negligence it was due to the unfortunate circumstance of where they were. It was an accident and could have happened to anyone. And all this nonsense about being super careful because you're around deadly animals must, once again, be coming mostly from non-parents. You don't walk around the zoo at super high alert because of the deadly animals. You're at the zoo, millions of people walk around thousands of zoos a day without dying. You have a much better chance of dying on the way in the car than being attacked by a gorilla or lion. It's a completely illogical expectation.
This whole thing is nuts. Poor family had a traumatic event that, thank God, did not turn tragic. The poor zoo lost a very loved animal and valuable exhibit. The poor animal had his life cut short but luckily doesn't appear to have suffered. There are no winners but honestly this could have turned out so much worse. The kid is safe and that's all that REALLY matters in this story.