When A Child Fell Into The Gorilla Pen At The Zoo, You Won’t Believe What The Animal Did

when a child fell into the gorilla pen at the zoo you won't believe what the animal did imagine you're enjoying a fun day at the zoo when suddenly you hear a scream near the gorilla exhibit people begin to panic and shout well your curiosity is suddenly piqued as you approach the enclosure you spot people pointing down into the pen and you realize there's a small child that has fallen into the exhibit it seems like a tail out of a Hollywood movie but sadly children falling into zoo enclosures happens more than you think the most recent incident happened in 2016 what a young boy fell into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo slipping under the fence he tumbled in the exhibit below Harambee an icon at the zoo took an interest in the boy and things took a terrible turn shortly thereafter in an effort to save the child unharmed the zookeepers made the difficult decision to shoot and kill the gorilla this led to a media firestorm and controversy that questioned if the zoo should be charged with animal cruelty and if the entire ordeal could have been avoided altogether and while a ROM based story dominated the media conversation it's actually not the first time a child's gone into a close encounter with a gorilla in fact one child stared one of these large creatures in the face over 30 years ago changing the way people viewed gorillas forever for Levin merit the Harambee incident felt surreal and familiar because he too had a similar experience with a gorilla named Jambo it was August 30th 1986 and at the young age of five merits fun day at the zoo quickly turned into a scary ordeal you won't believe what happened it was a beautiful late summer day and Merritt along with his parents and older brother Clint were fascinated by the gorillas unfortunately Merritt couldn't see very well due to his height so he decided to climb up on the wall for a better look of course things didn't go exactly the way he had planned the moment Merritt's mother Polly noticed her son on the wall it was too late the child lost his footing and tumbled into the enclosure Pauline remembers the incident like it was yesterday when levan slipped into the pen I started shouting and screaming and I was led away to the zoo cafe while my husband stayed put the entire incident was caught on tape but Pauline didn't see the footage of the incident until the next day it was only the next day we saw what had happened Pauline revealed one of the nurses had seen it on breakfast TV and asked us have you seen this knowing that we were the family who'd been involved that was the first time I saw it and to be honest I couldn't actually believe what I was seeing the video revealed Merritt unconscious on the Pens floor while several curious gorillas approached the leader 8 252 pound male silverback named Jambo seemed to be the most curious of the bunch the large animals slowly lumbered toward the small child sniffing out the situation the crowd and zookeepers watched with bated breath as Jambo approached the child no one knew how we would react to the stranger in his home however what happened next completely shocked everyone instead of acting aggressively Jambo seemed to almost take a protective stance over the child as the large primate loomed over his body he made sure to keep himself between Merritt and the other gorillas that were approaching it was at this point Merritt slowly began to woke up thanks to Jambo how the public viewed gorillas and their temperament was forever changed this was most evident when Marik woke up and began to cry Jambo immediately reacted by retreating and motioning for the other gorillas to follow him back to the pen nothing to see here folks at this point in time the zookeepers immediately jumped into the exhibit to check on merit and lock the gorillas away unfortunately one curious gorilla named hobbit began to run back towards the boy thankfully the zookeepers were able to remove the child without incident since Merritt had fallen roughly 20 feet on the hard concrete he had multiple injuries that needed to be tended to Eden broken his arm as well as fractured his skull the first I saw the video was in the hospital and I remember being incredibly surprised and quite shocked obviously I couldn't believe what had happened he told reporters Merritt's life was forever changed after the incident the zoo kept in contact with him and he even had the honor of cutting the ribbon on the honorary statue of Jambo who said died in 1992 however there was a dark side to his newfound fame from the incident as well as a young student merit found himself being teased by his fellow peers some called him gorilla boy and others Tarzan going to school soon made a complete slog and socially merit found himself alone thankfully he made it through in the end and now 30 years later is married with his own family for merit it seemed like history was repeating itself on May 28 2016 when four year-old Isaiah fell into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo the entire incident was caught on video and let's just say everyone's chimed in on the entire ordeal Isaiah had been visiting the zoo with his mother Michelle Greg and had wandered away when she wasn't looking after approaching the fence of the enclosure he'd slipped under it and tumbled into the exhibit below attracting the attention of one of the older gorillas named Harambee at first Harambee seemed to be protective of the boy unfortunately as the boy's mother began to scream and the crowd got worked up his behavior became more erratic the gorillas began to pick up and play with the child quite aggressively and the zookeepers knew they had to make a quick decision before things took a terrible turn Isaiah understandably became quite upset as he began to cry Harambee picked him up and dragged him across the pen into a corner area as the crowd screamed in fear the zoo was faced with a very difficult decision afraid that shooting a tranquilizer at harambee could result in a violent reaction the zoo decided they had to put the gorilla down to safely retrieve the child Harambee was shot and the boy was saved but the zoo could have never predicted the fallout from what would come afterwards after viewing the footage Merritt resisted to back the zoo's decision but ultimately believes they made the right call I felt for the boy but also felt for the gorilla he told the son did they have to kill it the four-year-old is tiny and could easily have been injured so they made the correct decision to save the boy's life however Merritt's mother actually believes the zoo could have done more to protect the gorilla I don't think he should have been killed the keeper should have got in and tried to get the gorilla way and then get the boy out no way he should have been killed after the death of Harambee hit the news the media immediately took aim at the Cincinnati Zoo for their handling of the situation while the life of the child was the main priority it was perceived the life of the gorilla wasn't did the zookeepers really have to kill the gorilla these questions began to circle through the news outlets which would lead to a media firestorm no one could have predicted social media outrage went viral as videos of the incident circulated an animal activists scream for justice Instagram reddit Twitter and Tumblr all began sharing photos of Harambee creating new hashtags in an effort to fight back against animal cruelty unfortunately the reaction was not what the mother of the child expected instead of support after a traumatic ordeal mother Michelle Gregg found herself the target of a vicious online backlash after posting how thankful she was for her son getting out of the situation alive online users began flooding her Facebook with hateful comments and sending abusive emails the online community wanted justice and 100% believed it was Michelle's negligence that led to her on BAE's death as the fallout continued animal experts began to weigh in on the situation some believe that the crowd screaming at the gorilla did not help the situation and that what was perceived as a violent act toward the child was just Harambee trying to protect him from the chaos however other behavioral specialists believed her on base actions were erratic and simply tranquilizing him could have resulted in the child being injured or worse with all the controversy the Cincinnati Zoo became the subject of an intense investigation processes were analyzed procedures reviewed and Harambee span examined for faults in his architecture in the end investigators made a startling discovery it seemed that the fencing surrounding her amazing closure was not up to standard the space beneath the fence was much too large which it allowed the child to slip through and then tumble into the gorillas domain with the zoo to blame the death of Harambee became all the more tragic if the zoo had implemented the proper fencing the child would have never been able to make his way into her on-base pen the entire situation could have been avoided and the sweet gorilla would still be alive today it was a senseless and avoidable tragedy one the public and zoos around the world should learn from the Romney incident hit close to home for both merritt and his mother and whether or not you agree with their positions on what should have happened the entire incident could be described as nothing more than tragic for Merritt he's simply thankful his situation with jambo was different in my case jambo made sure nothing bad could happen he stated I am forever thankful to jambo as obviously it could have gone one of two ways it was amazing the way he protected me