I think luck does play a part and yes, children are very different. My sons were somewhere in the middle, active but not generally wild. I still feel lucky (and amazed) that they got out of childhood with no broken bones or stitches… They were both very active, and played tons of different sports.
I never used a leash but if I can imagine scenarios where I would have for my son. He was very active. Fortunately D was calmer and by the time she was fully mobile S could be reasoned with more.
I also never had to, say, navigate an airport alone with both of them.
Things have changed a lot with social media. Everyone can post their opinions online very quickly and the buzz of a story gets started. With online presence everyone has a digital fingerprint. With this story different audience members are focused on individual pieces of the story that concerns them. There is just so many angels to this story that it touches each person in a different way.
Well I have to be honest. It really didn’t touch me. I’m sorry from a scientific standpoint the gorilla is gone, but I’m not crying over it. I’m glad the kid is unharmed and I’m really not interested in the sanctimony of people who don’t understand that accidents happen. (Hope none of those people ever accidentally ran a stop sign or anything.)
Tatin, you were so lucky with your twins. Every moment outside with my toddler to age 3 or so twins was a potential disaster in the making. At the park, do you run for the one heading for the lake, or the one heading for the street? They never walked as much as a single kid outside, as it was too hard to keep them safe, and can’t carry two at once very far.
Apparently there is a moose on the loose (no, swype, I don’t mean “mouse”) in Belmont, MA, where I drive every day. If I see it, I don’t plan to get out and cuddle it. 
I do feel very sad about the poor gorilla. But given the situation, it was the only possible intervention authorities could take.
An earlier poster questioned why a sedative couldn’t have been given that would take effect immediately. Unless one has an IV in for immediate venous access, that’s just not possible. The medication would be injected into muscle or fat tissue, and that enters the bloodstream more slowly than via IV. It wasn’t possible for them to achieve instantaneous sedation.
@fretfulmother, Speaking of moose… did you see on the news about the moose giving birth in the Lowe’s parking lot somewhere in Alaska? There was a parking lot full of people taking videos!
@stevienj - I didn’t see that!!
@stevienj - that is freaking adorable! I found myself rooting for the calf to start nursing, which oddly s/he didn’t seem to be interested in doing.
I read today that in 1996, a preschooler fell/climbed into a lowland gorilla display and that time, was “rescued” by one of the gorillas, who carried him to humans for help (!) but I couldn’t find video of that, though the Globe article said there was video.
The 1996 rescue was at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo and it was the first thing I thought of when I saw this story. hhttp://www.aol.com/article/2016/05/31/video-archive-brookfield-zoo-gorilla-rescues-little-boy-who-fel/21386541/
Bintu Jai rescued the 3 year old toddler who was unconscious, protected him from other gorillas, and carried him over to a doorway where she turned him over to a keeper. All while carrying her own infant.
Marilyn, the link doesn’t work.
@DonnaL - I googled Brookfield gorilla zoo 1996 rescue and found it - maybe that would work?
Sorry, link worked for me but fretfulmother is correct that a simple search brings up lots of links.
Searching “Binta Jua 1986” brings up video of the female gorilla’s rescue of the unconscious toddler. Amazing! Great there was a happy outcome!
I think the instant judgement of the mother is misguided (and in some cases, may also be venal, the fact that the mom was African American I am sure triggered some responses not so nice, based on stereotypes and such:). That is up to the authorities to figure out, if she/the father was negligent they will investigate. It is very easy to lose a young child, it only takes an instant, kids that age are greased lightening a lot of the time. Unless someone can show the mother did something stupid, like left the kid there by himself (which doesn’t seem to be the case), then it is what it is, a tragic accident. I think the people blaming her are out of line, and I honestly think those blaming the Zoo or those who shot the gorilla are out of line, no matter how much you try not all accidents are preventable. Now if this had been a 10 or 15 year old kid, I would be looking at this from a different angle (by that point, a kid is old enough to learn restraint assuming the kid was otherwise normal), but a three year old?
There’s also the factor tranquilizer dosages for large living beings such as 400 pound gorillas is not always cut and dried.
Factors such as being highly agitated or otherwise being in an adrenaline rush could mean even a safe high dosage may not be as consistently effective or quick acting as many assume. Especially considering the line between a safe dosage and one which ODs the gorilla to death may be exceedingly thin according to some gorilla experts who have written on this tragic case.
Just had to refute a couple of FB friends’ posts second-guessing the zoo’s actions regarding use of tranquilizers or wondering why the zoo guard didn’t “aim for the arms/legs”.
Agree on both counts.
Even with the agreement with the latter, I am disturbed by how many supporters of the mother don’t mention or minimize the fact a living being was killed by being placed in a situation created by human stupidity.
And I’m not thinking of the mother’s lapse of attention…but the onlookers who were screaming/yelling for around 10 minutes which clearly agitated Harambe and put the zoo in a position where the shot had to be taken.
If the onlookers were quieter and calm…it’s very likely Harambe wouldn’t have ended up in an agitated state as illustrated earlier in the video and reports and the zoo could have figured out a way to get the 3 year old kid away without having to shoot Harambe.
Well, let’s see how quiet and calm you remain , cobrat, if you ever have a kid and said kid falls in a pit with a gorilla.
My HS classmate and 14 year old me did remain calm and quiet when we walked in on an armed burglary at the classmate’s apartment. Both burglars were carrying guns with one being a visibly loaded revolver.
We had no choice as we both well knew any yelling/screaming would result in the both of us being dead and part of the crime statistics of NYC during the tail end of the high crime era. And no…there’s no way 2 14/15 year old boys well under 5’5" could take on and overpower 2 well-built armed burglars(one was well over 6’3") who had no compunctions about killing for a few dollars. It didn’t help that my classmate’s family/apartment had practically nothing worth stealing and just a few months before someone was shot and killed because the robber was angry the victim ONLY had a couple of bucks on him.
Also, we as human beings often like to pride ourselves as having greater abilities to reason and make rational logical decisions than other species. That wasn’t seemingly on display from the mostly adult onlookers on the day Harambe was tragically killed.