Saturday was a dark day over at the Cincinnati Zoo, a four-year-old boy hospitalised and a 17-year-old gorilla killed following a horrible incident.

The boy had climbed through the railings and fallen into the moat in the gorilla’s enclosure, with the ensuing interaction leading to Harambe [pictured above] being shot and killed.

The zoo’s dangerous response team had to make the decision, reaching the conclusion that they needed to act swiftly before the child was injured,

Here’s WLWT:

A Cincinnati fire department incident report says that the gorilla “was violently dragging and throwing the child” when they were called.

The child was in between the gorilla’s legs when the gorilla was shot, fire officials said.

“It’s a sad day all around,” Maynard said. “They made a tough choice and they made the right choice, because they saved that little boy’s life. It could have been very bad.”

Three gorillas were in the enclosure when the boy fell in the moat. Two were called out of the enclosure immediately, but the third — Harambe — stayed in the yard.

One woman said that she saw the gorilla drag the boy from one end of his habitat to the other…

The gorilla was not tranquilized [sic] because when the animal is agitated, Maynard said, the tranquilizer may not take effect right away. This was the first time Cincinnati Zoo officials have killed an animal in this manner, Maynard said.

Some footage of when the child first fell into the moat – no footage of when the gorilla was shot, but I think that’s something we can all do without this early on a Monday morning.

[source:wlwt]