The People "Signing" These Petitions Do Know That Shaming Some Parents Isn't Going To Bring A Dead Gorilla Back To Life, Right?

WFLX- Activists are banding together in support of Harambe by creating a petition to pass 'Harambe's Law.'

The petition states the law would give legal consequences when an endangered animal is harmed or killed due to the negligence of visitors.

As of Tuesday morning, the petition has more than 106,000 supporters. Once it reaches enough signatures, its author - a woman from Chicago - said she plans to send it to lawmakers. 

Another petition, by a woman in Cincinnati, blames the boy's parents for neglect and calls for them to be investigated. That one has more than 300,000 supporters.



Listen, I have a soul. My heart sank - just as yours did - when I found out that Harambe the Gorilla had to be put down to "save" the life of a child that had fallen inside his enclosure. Especially considering the fact that he was an animal - not meant for captivity - that was quite clearly trying to protect the boy as much as he possibly could. Unfortunately, like most things that happen in 2016, the public's insane overreaction to the death of a gorilla that they never knew is too fucking stupid that I can't even finish "mourning" the death of a gorilla I never knew. I don't even know what's happening here. Are we trying to imprison a couple of parents that turned their head away from their 4 year old for one minute? 300,000 PEOPLE want to put a child's legal guardians behind bars because they had a moment of obliviousness? Can't wait to hear how these hundreds of thousands of people would explain that to this child...

"Hey little man, I know you just survived the traumatizing experience of being face-to-face with an animal that's literally 10x your size before watching it MURDERED right in front of you, but now we are going to do everything we can to drag your entire family through the mud because the place responsible for that animal can't keep it safe from civilian interaction nor can they interact with it well enough to keep two parties that appear relatively safe alive when civilian interaction accidentally does occur."

Should these parents have been more aware? Absolutely. Do they deserve to be fucking prosecuted because their kid got curious? Get real. You know why people childproof their kitchens? It's because it's impossible to live while keeping an eye on another human during every waking second of your life.  It's what you sign up for when you decide to leave it in without a condom, but let's not make it sound like these two were the first people to every have to frantically search for an inquisitive kid. Just turns out that this particular time said kid ended up in the arms of King Kong instead of nestled closely against the interior pole of a Sears' coatrack. 

When I was younger I got lost at SeaWorld. Personally, I wouldn't consider my family to be negligent. Granted, I didn't end up swimming laps with Shamu, but the reasoning behind that is quite simple. SeaWorld doesn't provide a youth accessible diving board into their killer whale tank. Hey Cincinnati Zoo, be better at zooing. There should be no amount of time in which a 4 year old - while left by himself - can work his way into the Gorilla exhibit. Do they even realize how dumb people are nowadays? If they can't stop a baby from getting some alone time with Harambe then how did they plan on stopping the teenage asshole that was eventually going to jump in their in an attempt to go viral? Even Jurassic Park is ashamed of the Cincinnati Zoo's safety precautions. Not saying I know the best way to protect primates, but it probably couldn't hurt to put up some glass. If not to act as a shield for projectile poop then to safely deter a powerless 4 year old from falling into a situation that was somehow unavoidably fatal. 
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