Zoo Atlanta wouldn’t directly comment Tuesday about the situation involving a 4-year-old boy who managed to slip into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo.
"Since our own experts weren't present and we don't have all the facts as to what happened, it wouldn't be appropriate for Zoo Atlanta to comment specifically on that incident," Rachel Davis, Zoo Atlanta's director of communications, wrote in an email.
The zoo in Grant Park did release a statement regarding the overall emphasis it places on safety.
“The safety of Zoo Atlanta visitors, animals and staff is of paramount importance at Zoo Atlanta at all times,” the statement said. “This is true not just of our gorilla complex, but of the entire Zoo and all its habitats.”
Witnesses to Saturday’s incident in Cincinnati said the unidentified boy managed to bypass wire and wood barriers separating visitors from the Gorilla World enclosure before falling about 10 feet below into a small moat. The silverback named Harambe appeared alternately protective of the boy and agitated by the commotion surrounding his presence. He was finally shot and killed by the Cincinnati Zoo, which said shooting a tranquilizer at the 420-pound Harambe might not have been quick or effective enough to save the little boy.
At Zoo Atlanta, “every situation is different” when it comes to the use of tranquilizers, Davis said. “Thus, we would not be able to say what our response team would do in any given specific situation.”
While Zoo Atlanta’s gorilla habitats “are designed to give guests the experience of feeling that they are very close to the gorillas, there are still a series of safety barriers in place between the gorillas and their human visitors,” the Zoo’s safety statement said.
“Safety checks are performed on all the gorilla habitats each morning before the gorillas go outside and are conducted at other times throughout the day,” Zoo Atlanta added. “The same is true of all of the animal habitats within the Zoo. Zoo Atlanta also conducts safety drills multiple times each year.”
Still, there have been occasional incidents at Zoo Atlanta in recent years. They've involved animals getting out, though, and nothing has been of the magnitude of what happened in Cincinnati. In 2010, a tiger rattlesnake slithered all the way out of the zoo and ended up on the porch of an Atlanta Avenue home. In 2014, a barn owl flew away from the zoo during a demonstration and was missing for nearly a week before it, too, turned up on a homeowner's porch about a half-mile away.
Meawhile, the Cincinnati Zoo incident sparked a “Justice for Harambe” petition on Change.org demanding that “the (boy’s) parents to be held accountable for the lack of supervision and negligence.” It had garnered nearly 364,000 signatures by 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
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