The barrier in that zoo wouldn’t meet OSHA requirements for a 4 foot fall, much less a 10 foot plummet into a cage full of gorillas. Shouldn’t the requirement to protect paying guests be at least as stringent as those to protect adult employees who have received training in the hazards of their workplace?
OTOH, captive animals may gain a lot from toddlers – play toys and fresh protein.
Seems to me zoos are under regulated and at least half the American population is all about less regulation and letting the free market work out what is acceptable, and zoos are acceptable enough and if they aren’t then let’s regulate them, possibly out of economic viability.
There’s a universe of excluded middle that might be worth exploring.
I have three little boys. It’s just dumb luck that none of them has been eaten by a gorilla yet.
And disease. That’s a real thing. Zoos are careful, but there’s no telling what that cute giraffe your kid just petted was carrying.
Yep.
They’re cute, but Giraffes are filthy, vile, disgusting creatures.
I don’t know but I suspect that there are very few giraffe diseases that humans can get. More likely mites and other insect parasites are more worrisome.
Valid points. I remember something my dad used to say, tho, that I think has a lot of merit and it at least somewhat relevant: “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
As I read the articles, this mother heard her son say he was going to go into the cage, and then didn’t even know it was her kid until she heard there was a kid in the moat and she asked someone what the kid in the moat was wearing. On its face, does not suggest a tremendously great level of parental care.
Yes and my five year old wants to go to Mars. Doesn’t really make me that nervous she’ll climb on a rocket ship if we visit NASA.
Aren’t gorillas endangered, not because of zoo-killings, but because of poaching and habitat destruction? Maybe everyone with their panties in a twist about this unfortunate bit of bad luck should focus their attention on those things and dedicate time/money/effort towards that instead of the one-in-fifty-years US zoo based gorilla shooting.
This is a fair point. In fact, this is the only really fair critique of the enclosure design that I’ve seen anywhere. I would support such a standard for zoos.
Keep in mind, though, that this does not remotely approach the notion many people are throwing around, that it should be impossible for a determined person to get into a large-animal enclosure.
Wait, didn’t the free market work as designed here? The zoo had a choice, they could let a gorilla tear a three year old child to pieces in full view of dozens of paying guests holding video phones with the concomitant loss of business, or they could shoot the gorilla dead. You don’t think some regulation required them to shoot the gorilla, do you? They made a purely economic decision.
I’m just saying that if a three year old child was able to circumvent their barrier, maybe they should design a system that was a little more secure. Hey, it’s their choice, but I’d be embarrassed to come up with something easily defeated by a toddler. I’ll bet toddlers aren’t sneaking in the front gates without paying the $22.00 ticket price ($27.00 adult) . They could ask the guy who designed that for some help.
Not sure what you mean, but zoos spend millions on ape exhibits and those apes will never see their native habitat while the people who are actually trying to protect wild ape ecologies can’t afford underwear, much less the resources to, you know, protect the natural habitats. That’s why I think we’d be better off watching wildlife documentaries and sending our donation dollars to where it’s needed, instead of building day care centers with captive bred animals and pretending we care while tossing our kids off to zoo child day care centers.
Giraffes have been found carrying Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), Anthrax, and Echinococcus granulosus. Cite.
But I was really just poking our poster, Giraffe.
Nobody’s saying it should be impossible for a determined adult, just a determined 4 year old.
Should the enclosure be built to make it impossible for a determined adult to get in? Probably not.
Built to keep a determined 4 year-old out? I would hope so.
I mean that, if you think that letting a toddler get mauled to death is better than shooting a gorilla because “it’s endangered” then there’s a bunch of options for you to spend your time and energy protecting gorillas which actually statistically need it. You know, the ones in actual scenarios where they’re dying on a regular basis instead of fretting about the scant few which die in US zoos (and are part of breeding programs).
Indeed.
As you and drewder point out, the reasonable standard ought to be to prevent young children from falling in.
That’s exactly the standard adopted by the European zoo guidelines, which requires a
“barrier which would be capable of restraining children from falling” in such circumstances.
Not seeing anything unreasonable about that requirement - which, rather, just seems sensible.
I’m curious - does anyone know where there is a picture of the fence? I’ve seen pics and vids own into the moat, but no shots of the fence the kid circumvented. Most zoos I’ve been to, have a relatively low railing - maybe 42" - which most determined children or adults (tho possibly not 3-4 yr olds) could easily climb. I’m not sure zoos should have to do more.
But if the bars were too far apart, or if it was easy to crawl under, that would IMO suggest a lack of sufficient care by the zoo.
Well, are zoos a “humans can’t jump in” areas or are they a “caged animals can’t jump out” areas? I don’t know. The Cincinnati zoo seems to have found something that worked for 38 years, but humans are fuckers about thwarting what did work, and sueing when they stupidly circumvent it.
But yeah, we really need to just make everything unthwartable by three-year-olds, 'cause that gets you sued. Let’s not be all sad and depressed and bitchy when zoos go away because they aren’t day care centers. Successful zoos will probably be more child friendly Disney Lands with lots of child-friendly rides and food stands. That’s probably a good thing. Captive animals under the pretense of “conservation” is stupid, so let’s let the free market work that out. Amusement parks fine, zoos are right out. They don’t seem to serve a useful purpose. It’s archaic and stupid and overly risky.