June 27, 2016
A boy fell into a gorilla enclosure at a zoo. A gorilla went
to pick him up, but eventually started dragging him around, and keepers were
afraid that he’d hurt the boy; so they shot him.
Naturally, people started pointing fingers: The mother was to
blame, the zoo was to blame, blah, blah, blah.
Nobody thought much of my idea: That if the onlookers had
controlled themselves instead of continuously yelling, the gorilla might not
have gotten so agitated, and the keepers would have been able to retrieve the
boy safely. It seemed to me like the gorilla started out to help the boy, but
then in the ensuing mayhem, he got confused and agitated, leading to his stress
reaction and the child’s danger.
So maybe I’m wrong; but maybe next time something like this happens, people could try to
overcome their (perfectly natural, I admit) tendency to yell and/or jump
around, which will only exacerbate the situation.
Keep calm, don’t carry on.
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