Primate Lives Matter

[Peony]

On May 31, 2016 a three year old and his mother visited the Cincinnati Zoo. When mom wasn’t looking, junior slipped into the gorilla enclosure. Lickity split, the gorilla sees the kid and moves toward him. Mom notices her son is no longer at her side. Other people present notice there is a child in the gorilla habitat with the gorilla. Hysterical utterances and hand wringing commence. On everybody’s mind was that they must get the kid out of there or he may be harmed. Gorillas are big and strong and could injure or kill a young human being without even trying. Full Video Shows Harambe the Gorilla Dragging Child Before He Was Shot

Since the child couldn’t slip out of the gorilla’s habitat the same way he slipped in, someone would have to go in there and get him. Oh oh. The resident gorilla was there and was agitated. Naturally, the gorilla was agitated. There was a trespasser in his space. Not only that, outside his space, the people who come to stare at him, were shrieking and waving their arms around.

Officials shot the gorilla dead, retrieved the errant youngster, and returned him to his mother.

Reactions to this news included demands of Justice for Harambe (the gorilla’s name) and claims that the gorilla was shot because he was black.

A demand for justice for killing an animal that posed a genuine danger to a child, sounds not so much noble as outright irrational. Moral righteousness is a great theme for a hashtag. The thing is, animals have no rights. Gorillas have no rights. Zoo animals have no rights. Justice in the way we usually think of it, legal justice, doesn’t apply here. The gorilla had to die to save a little boy.

We are morally obliged to look after zoo animals’ needs while we keep them captive and on display. Heaving cries for justice for an animal that was shot dead so it wouldn’t kill a human being is overwrought romanticism at best. Such entreaties for justice do little other than make people feel good about themselves for acting like they really really care.

Where is the concern over the very real brush with death the child faced? And how about the horrible waiting and watching and fearing a terrible outcome, his mother went through? It may be that the terrible ordeal of the woman and the boy are too close to home, so to speak. It’s just easier to bemoan the poor dead gorilla.

Wildly, there is a proposed “Harambe’s Law” to protect endangered zoo animals from being killed when a zoo visitor does something dumb. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/outrage-after-gorilla-harambe-killed-at-cincinnati-zoo-to-save-child/

Some take hashtags, some take action. To wit, the practically minded Cincinnati Zoo has added an additional barrier to further discourage over curious and adventurous patrons from entering the gorilla enclosure. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/06/02/cincinnati-zoo-gorilla-exhibit-reopen/85296442/

It’s sad that the gorilla had to be killed. What we need to accept is that the gorilla had to be killed. The life of a human being is more important than the life of a zoo animal. No matter how much we love animals we must be able to see that. There are those who cry over the violent death of a gorilla. Do they save any tears for the people who died violently that day?

There were some bizarre responses to the death of the gorilla. For example, there were accusations that the gorilla was shot because he was black. Black lives matter! Did anybody notice that the little boy plucked out of the gorilla’s den was black? Never mind. To some, black lives matter most if they are covered in fur and classified endangered.

Meanwhile in Chicago, as Allen West points out, 6 people were killed and 63 were wounded by gunfire the same weekend as the gorilla was shot. http://cnsnews.com/commentary/allen-west/allen-west-how-does-gorilla-garner-more-attention-shootings-chicago-last

Reality check. One gorilla shot dead. Six human beings shot dead. Sixty-three human beings injured.

Of course gorilla lives matter. We have to ask ourselves though, why did this gorilla killed in the Cincinnati Zoo cause so much outrage? At what point did we run out of outrage for all those of our own species being killed every day? What happened to the our moral meter when we weep over a 17 year old captive gorilla while ignoring the many many dead people? Black neighborhoods suffer deaths from shootings every weekend. All the silence over the dead people vs all the gasping over a gorilla’s death makes it appear that concern for primates being victimized is of greatest import when the victim primate is of the simian variety.

When did the minority group, great apes eclipse the majority group, humans? Is this evolution?

 

[HenryBHough]

Wrong that the gorilla was confined at all. Shoulda been in DC where critters like that are properly respected.

 

[Moonglow]

There are some folks that value animal life over human life....Why? I am not sure since they are not from the animal kingdom, yet, there they are..

 

[JakeStarkey]

Mom needs to go to jail for six months: child abuse, animal abuse.

 

[HenryBHough]

Child abuse?

Worse than allowing an almost-teen to still prance about in red Dr. Dentons?

 

[waltky]

Treatment of other animals...

If Gorilla's Death Moves You, Consider Other Animals' Plights
June 4, 2016 - The shooting death of Harambe, the 17-year-old western lowland gorilla, after a four-year-old boy fell into his cage at the Cincinnati Zoo, is a tragedy in all ways. Harambe delighted zoo-goers, and may have meant the boy no harm.

The little boy's parents say they are grateful their son survived and is doing well. But many people on social media platforms have attacked the mother as neglectful. Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society said on his blog that the debate over how Harambe died reminds him of old dorm room discussions where people would pose imaginary questions that weighed the life of an animal against a human being's. But if some of the people who snarl at the boy's parents on social media want to do something more for animals, they may need to look no further than their own dinner.

We have heard a lot in recent years about the 8.5 billion chickens that are slaughtered for food in the United States every year. The ones that live on factory farms are kept in cages about as large as a sheet of copy paper. Their feet never touch the ground. They never see the sun or sky. They never play or mate. Their beaks are often snipped or burned off to keep them from pecking each other to death in those cramped, congested cages. Harambe's death might also remind us how more than 100 million pigs are raised for food in the United States. The ASPCA points out that pigs, who are known to be as intelligent as dogs, are one of the few animals Americans both keep as pets and raise for food.

Zoo visitors look at protestors and mourners from a walk bridge during a vigil for the gorilla Harambe outside the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.​

Most pigs are kept in windowless sheds on factory farms, in cages so small they cannot turn around; so they will grow fat. They live in their own manure, and the air is so heavy with ammonia that many pigs develop lesions on their lungs. Female breeding pigs are put into what are called gestation crates, where they are artificially inseminated. They give birth, then are inseminated time and time again; and when they can longer get pregnant, they're slaughtered.

We could go on. But it is not necessary to become a vegetarian to change what we eat to consume fewer animals, which is probably healthier anyway. What happened to Harambe was a catastrophe, but one so rare as to be almost unprecedented. The treatment of so many millions of animals raised for food can be just business as usual.

If Gorilla's Death Moves You, Consider Other Animals' Plights

See also:

All tigers removed from Thailand 'Tiger Temple'
Sat June 4, 2016 All 137 tigers once housed at Thailand's controversial "Tiger Temple" have been removed, authorities told CNN.

About 100 tigers were removed from the grounds earlier this week, and the remaining animals were taken off the site Saturday. The "tigers looked fairly healthy," said Adisorn Noochdumrong, deputy director general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP). His team will be performing "thorough check-ups on every tiger, to see if they are indeed in good condition." The operation to move the tigers from the Buddhist temple took almost a week, authorities told CNN. The confiscated tigers will be moved to a new home at a governmental sanctuary in Ratchaburi Province, about 90 km (56 miles) south of Kanchanaburi Province, where the temple is located.

Five men, including three monks, from the controversial "Tiger Temple" have been charged with possession of endangered animal parts without permission. They were detained and released on bail on Friday. Federal officials filed the charges after 40 dead tiger cubs were found in a freezer at the Buddhist temple, the deputy chief of the country's parks and wildlife department said. Other items discovered included "two pieces of tiger skin, eight to nine pieces of tiger teeth and about 800 to 900 'Ta Krud,' and we are currently looking around the temple for more suspicious items," said Tuenjai Noochdumrong, the director of Thailand's Wildlife Conservation Office (WCO), a division of the DNP. (She is married to Adisorn Noochdumrong.) "Ta Krud" are small containers with pieces of tiger skin, mostly worn as pendants around the neck by people with the superstitious belief that by wearing them they will become invincible.

Officers reported they found a pendant containing tiger skin in the room of the temple's chief monk, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.
The Tiger Temple fired back on Facebook, denying claims that it possessed tiger skin. "The recent discovery of the tiger skins and necklaces comes as a shock to us as well as the rest of the world. We are disgusted at this discovery and we don't condone this. We are looking forward to the authorities bringing the culprits to justice."

Officials plan to file more complaints against the individuals involved with the foundation that runs the Tiger Temple, said Noochdumrong. These charges will also be filed against the chief monk of the temple, known as "the abbott," officials said. If the suspects are convicted of violating the Wildlife Conservation Act, they face a maximum penalty of four years in prison and/or a fine of $1,100, said Noochdumrong. The suspects were released on bail set at $2,250 per person. A prosecutor will decide whether to take the case to trial.

Thai tiger temple: All tigers removed - CNN.com

 

[Masked Dissident]

Why do we value the lives of cats and dogs over the lives of primates?

 

[Fair&Balanced]

This thread isn't at ALL what I thought it was gonna be

 

[SYTFE]

This thread isn't at ALL what I thought it was gonna be

Disappointed?

 

[The Great Goose]