A gorilla over a child?

[me1ancon]

saw video this morning along with witness accounts. gorilla seems to be "caring" for the child; kinda feeling him out, until the yelling crowd agitates him and he tries to get away taking the boy along for the ride. he was NOT "violently throwing the boy around" as the media reports.

As for the parents...according to statements from the incident it seems that the boy had his hand in his mother's back pocket as she turned to take a picture. the boy slipped away from her and over/through the fence. there is a 4-5 foot ledge before the drop off into the enclosure. Witnesses say that the mother noticed the boy slipped away as he was going through the fence. she and others began yelling and attempting to get the boy but he continued forward until he fell....we all know what happened after that.

I understand the natural instinct to assign blame to explain how or why things happen; but, if I am understanding this situation correctly, this was simply a freak accident which ended in the loss of a great animal.

I also agree that the people crying about the gorilla would have a different tune if it were their kid. AND, if the zookeepers had waited and for some reason the boy would have been mortally injured the gorilla would have, in turn, been put down; which would have caused the loss of two lives.

Props to the Zoo for responding so quickly in such a tense situation.