The incident resulted in the shooting and killing a gorilla to ensure the boy's safety, zoo officials said. Please understand that any disturbance toward the family may result in legal action being taken against you by the family and any involved parties. He was taken to a local hospital and although no information about his condition has been released, it is believed he will fully recover. The boy climbed through the barrier around the gorilla enclosure just before 4 p.m. Saturday, then fell 12 feet into the moat surrounding the exhibit. But reports say this was only a partial picture, and the boy was dragged by the 17-year-old male western lowland gorilla for about 10 minutes. According to a Cincinnati Fire Department incident report, the gorilla was violently dragging and throwing the child, leading the zoo's emergency responders to decide to put the gorilla down "to save the child," the zoo said. Image copyright Reuters Image caption The 17-year-old male gorilla, Harambe, was brought to the zoo in 2014 
 
 Zoo director Thane Maynard said: "[The officials] made a tough choice and they made the right choice because they saved that little boy's life. "We are heartbroken about losing Harambe, but a child's life was in danger and a quick decision had to be made," he said. "In an agitated situation, it may take quite a while for the tranquilizer to take effect," he said, "At the instant he would be hit, he would have a dramatic response." I am well aware of how difficult the decision was and it could not have been an easy one for the Zoo's Animal Response Team especially as the staff at the Zoo goes above and beyond providing compassionate care for all the animals entrusted to them. Only Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office, Hamilton County Job and Family Services, and Cincinnati Police Department should be in contact with the family. The exhibit is inspected regularly by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums and the United States Department of Agriculture, and adheres to safety guidelines, according to the zoo. Nevertheless, we will study this incident as we work toward continuous improvement for the safety of our visitors and animals." In a statement issued Sunday, a primatologist with animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said the zoo’s enclosure should have been surrounded by a “secondary barrier” to better separate humans from the gorillas.
– Did the gorilla have to die? The Cincinnati Zoo is facing an angry backlash for shooting Harambe, an endangered gorilla, dead after a 4-year-old boy fell in its enclosure Saturday, CNN reports. Protesters who accuse the zoo of using excessive force gathered outside the zoo Sunday and the #JusticeforHarambe movement has started a petition to have the boy's parents investigated for negligence. The zoo, however, says that while it is devastated by the death of the male western lowland gorilla, the boy was in imminent danger and tranquilizers would not have worked quickly enough. A witness says that after the boy fell 15 feet into in the enclosure, the gorilla seemed protective at first, but he became agitated as visitors screaming and started dragging the boy through a moat. A witness tells CNN that to get into the enclosure when his mother was distracted, the boy had to "climb under something, through some bushes and then into the moat." He was released from a hospital on Saturday night and his parents issued a statement thanking the zoo and saying the boy is "doing just fine," the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. "We know that this was a very difficult decision for them, and that they are grieving the loss of their gorilla," they said. The BBC notes that a similar incident in Britain in 1986 had a happier ending. When a 5-year-old boy fell into a gorilla enclosure on the island of Jersey and fractured his skull, a male silverback named Jambo stood guard, stroking the boy and keeping other gorillas away until he was rescued.