Hi everyone. Before I dive into today’s post, I do want to mention about the weekend. May 27-30 was a long weekend in the US. May 30th is called Memorial Day. It is a day on which the US remembers their fallen war heroes. I know most people, including me, look at it as a holiday. But it is more than that. So I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to those that made the ultimate sacrifice, not just in the US but all over the world, and not just in war. Heroes are found in other situations like natural disasters, people who save accident victims and many more.

Talking about the ultimate sacrifice, I am not sure if people have been following the news in the US. For those not familiar, couple of days ago, a gorilla called Harambe, at the Cincinnati Zoo was killed by zoo officials. A twelve year old boy somehow managed to bypass the barrier and fell into the moat surrounding the gorilla enclosure. Harambe, a male lowland silverback gorilla, was seen charging towards the kid and dragging him to a corner. Zoo officials made a split second decision and killed the gorilla to save the child. I am not an animal activist, however, I could not help but think whether Harambe had to die? Lowland silverback gorilla is a sub-species that is considered endangered. Could he have been tranquilized? Was the child really in danger? Some eyewitnesses said that they felt the gorilla was actually protecting the child. They felt that his parental instinct took over. Others say that he was “displaying”. Displaying is a behavior male gorilla’s in the wild use to deal with challenges from another male. But once the gorilla realized that the intruder was not another gorilla, he would have backed off. I guess we will never know. But being the most evolved animal, do human beings have the right to kill those lower on the evolution ladder? What about the parents? Isn’t it their responsibility to make sure that their children don’t wander into unsafe areas. Was the gorilla enclosure not adequately equipped to keep intruders out? There are a lot of questions and maybe over the next few days, we will get some answers. Regardless it will be too late for a gorilla who paid the ultimate price.

Please let me know what your thoughts are.