Cincinatti Zoo officials shoot and kill gorilla after child falls into enclosure

[Higgs]

I imagine that shooting the gorilla while it was holding a baby was pretty dangerous in itself.

I'm not an expert, but wouldn't it be safer to shot the gorriba with sedatives. Isn't that usually a case?

I don't consider myself qualified to pass a judgement who was more responsible for this incident, but there's something terribly wrong if such thing could happen.

From what I've read the sedative would've taken 5 to 10 minutes before the gorilla was out. With the gorilla violently dragging the kid around, waiting 5 to 10 minutes wasn't really much of an option.

[Higgs]

I imagine that shooting the gorilla while it was holding a baby was pretty dangerous in itself.

I'm not an expert, but wouldn't it be safer to shot the gorriba with sedatives. Isn't that usually a case?

I don't consider myself qualified to pass a judgement who was more responsible for this incident, but there's something terribly wrong if such thing could happen.

From what I've read the sedative would've taken 5 to 10 minutes before the gorilla was out. With the gorilla violently dragging the kid around, waiting 5 to 10 minutes wasn't really much of an option.

Yes, there was no other option. What's most regretable is not the fact they had to shoot gorilla (who would take a risk with a kid's life threatened?), but the fact such situation was allowed to happen in the first place. Someone's obviously at fault, whether it's a casual carelessness or a fundamental flaw in the security. The kid was put at mortal danger and, I imagine, suffered a big trauma, and the gorilla had to be killed. It didn't have to happen.

Agreed, better precautions need to be taken so tragedies like this can be avoided.