A child is in the hospital after he got into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, and a gorilla is dead.
reported the 3-year-old boy was taken to the hospital after somehow entering the caged gorilla area and getting into the moat.
Director Thayne Maynard said that the silverback gorilla picked the boy up and dragged him around for about 10 minutes.
Zoo staff shot and killed the gorilla, 17-year-old Harambe, and recovered the boy safely. The child is at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“It’s a sad day all around,” Maynard said. “The right choice was made. It was a difficult choice.”
Maynard said a tranquilizer would not have taken effect immediately, and the gorilla may have become agitated and harm the boy further if Zoo staff had used that method.
Earlier reports did indicate that staff tranquilized the primate.
Police were dispatched to the Zoo at around 4 p.m.
The Zoo had just celebrated Harambe’s birthday on Friday.