Harambe Must Die

     Harambe was a male gorilla who had never shown any aggressiveness toward the other gorillas in his habitat during his 17 years.  But when a boy fell into his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo, it sealed Harambe's fate. Although it didn't look like the gorilla was trying to hurt the boy, it was determined that Harambe was just too powerful, and therefore too dangerous, to the boy's well being.  Even without malice, inasmuch as a gorilla can show malice, he could have caused great harm or worse to the boy.  Tranquilizers would have taken too much time according the the Dangerous Animal Response Team, something I was unaware zoos had.  So it was a sniper's bullet that flicked the switch that ended Harambe's life in the zoo that was his only home.
     Hopefully lessons will be learned.  Maybe fences will be made less porous, because a child in an enclosure with an animal that powerful is just too dangerous. I think most of us will agree that steps should be taken to ensure a child locked in with a powerful animal doesn't happen again.  But it does all the time.  Every day.  Maybe thousands of times an day in this country alone. 
     
     Yesterday an even younger child than the boy at the Cincinnati Zoo found herself in an enclosure with not one, but two very power animals.  This time however, one of the animals was know to be aggressive.  The two animals eventually attacked and killed the child.  This time the "enclosure" was the living room of a home in Fresno and the animals were dogs.  Shar Pei-pit bull mix.  
     I won't go into the details of the attack because frankly I didn't read them and will try not to imagine them.  You may be thinking that pit bulls are unfairly maligned.  That they have been singled out by the ignorant masses and media as the villain when it's the owners who bear the responsibility for the animals. I agree, it is the owners.  Owners are responsible for harm caused by pit bulls to children, and sometimes adults, but not just the owners who make sure they have aggressive dogs, perhaps to fulfill some macho bullshit fantasy, but also owners who put a pit bull and a child in the same room, yard, or even house together is sending that child down an path that could lead to great harm or death.  If simply having a child and a gorilla in an enclosure together means the gorilla must die, how is it that having a child and a pit bull together in an "enclosure"is okay?
    From dogbite.org, "In the 11-year period of 2005 through 2015, canines killed 360 Americans. Pit bulls contributed to 64% (232) of these deaths."  Out of the over 300 breeds of dogs, one accounts for 64% of fatal attacks.
     I tried to find statistics for fatal gorilla attacks for the same time period but there were none.  So I went back 20 years; none.  50 years; none.  100 years; none.  110 years; a zookeeper was attacked and killed by a gorilla in the Marseilles Zoo in France.  Obviously gorillas pose a greater threat to our children than pit bulls, so Harambe must die.

Post: Yes there are homes where pit bulls coexist with children and adults alike for their entire lives.  Then there are the the 232 homes that will never be the same.  Why take the risk?