Mother of Little Boy Who Fell Into The Gorilla (Harambe)’s Enclosure Will Not Face Charges. Do You Agree/Disagree This Is A Case of Parenting Fail?

I’ve been following the Harambe and the little boy story and I was just waiting for the aftermath of the whole saga because unlike people discrediting the boy’s mother on the internet, I thought differently. She was on my mind when I tweeted just a few days ago before this decision not to charge her was concluded.

If you missed the Harambe and the Little boy Story, Let me give you the gist briefly:

Harambe is a 17 year Old “Rare “Gorilla living at the Gorilla World, Cincinnati Zoo in the United States. A woman, Michelle Gregg and her kids were on a visit to the zoo when her 3 year old son somehow found his way through a barrier and fell down into the gorilla’s enclosure, the gorilla started (as seen in the video) dragging and throwing the child violently. This caused the zoo’s response team to shoot the gorilla dead to save the little boy from getting killed. As a mom, I was really horrified by the video I saw and was relieved when I heard the little boy was safe.

It didn’t end there, a lot of reaction from the public followed the incident, some people blamed the mother for not looking properly after her kid while in her company at the zoo. They think the gorilla paid the price for the parent’s faults. There have been a lot of harsh words and condemnations especially on the internet. An animals’ right group filed a suit against the zoo. A Facebook group called “Justice for Harambe” was set up saying it was cruelty to Harambe (when a child’s life was involved o). There were several comments from other parents like it can never happen to them, their kids are always supervised, their kids follow their laid down rules, they only have to whisper and their child will be called to order. Okay o, You can’t imagine how curious a 3 year old can be.

It's sad that such a rare and beautiful gorilla lost it's life, even the zoo was devastated at losing their beloved Harambe but they did what they felt was right because using a sedative on the gorilla was not an option as it will take some minutes for it to take effect on a big animal like Harambe. Trust the United States, the parents of the boy were put under serious investigation by the state authorities; police, child protection services and all. For almost a week, it seemed the woman may be prosecuted or worse of all loose custody of her son.

Before I had kids, I was quick to pass judgement. I once heard the story of how a little boy was missing in an area of Lagos the whole day, the boy’s dead body was discovered in a nearby water well the following morning. My first reaction when I heard was “where was the mum or guardian?” how did the boy get so close to the well unnoticed? ” but now I know that (as I tweeted) Parenting is the easiest thing to have an opinion about but the hardest thing to do”.

What happened was bad enough and we pray we are not in that situation, but did the people making the comments give her a benefit of doubt that she probably was attending to another child while the mishap happened? Kids are unpredictable and they can do the most impulsive thing in just a blink of an eye.

One could only imagine what the woman must have gone through knowing she almost lost a child.

Most importantly are the lessons to be learnt:

Someone always take the blame; It could have happened to anyone, supposing the kids had gone on an excursion in school and a similar thing happened, who would take the blame?

It takes a village to raise a child. Accidents happen, it takes only the Grace of God, rapid response and even the intervention of outsiders /other people to curb some situations.

Anything could happen in a fraction of a second. May the lord protect our kids and be our eyes where our eyes do not reach and when a situation arises, may the right people be at the right place.

Parents/guardians are responsible for their children/wards. That’s the fact and when a situation like this happens, the way it is handled matters. The woman handled it quite well by the 911 distress call she made. What you do immediately a mishap like this happens will determine how the situation will turn out.

Now the decision has been made, The prosecutor agreed that the mother was not to be blamed for the accident as they discovered the little boy had dashed off when the mother was attending to her other kids and she didn’t act in any way that presented danger to her child. You see na! Chikena!

If you think differently of my opinion, please share on the blog.

Video credit: YouTube/Inside Edition

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