Holy crap! I hope the child is OK. Sounds bad. Gorilla attack leaves 4 hurt after Dallas Zoo escape DALLAS — A gorilla's rampage through the Dallas Zoo that injured four people, including a toddler, remained under investigation as officials tried to determine how the 300-pound animal broke out of its cage. Rivers Noah, 3, was in critical condition early Friday at Children's Medical Center with multiple bites to his head and chest. His 26-year-old mother, Keisha Heard, was in good condition at Parkland Memorial Hospital after the gorilla bit her on the legs and threw her and the toddler against a wall Thursday, according to police and witnesses. Police who evacuated an estimated 300 people from the zoo compound fatally shot Jabari, the 13-year-old western lowland gorilla, after it charged at officers. "We had a huge gorilla running through" the zoo, Deputy Police Chief Daniel Garcia told The Dallas Morning News in Friday's editions. "It tried to charge two of our officers, so we had to shoot it. You can imagine the pandemonium we had out here when he got loose. We felt terrible we had to put this animal down." Tactical officers fired three shots at the gorilla. Zoo workers armed with tranquilizer guns had also pursued the animal through the forested jungles of the Wilds of Africa exhibit for a half-hour, but could not gain a clear shot. Jabari had been in the award-winning gorilla-conservation area, surrounded by a 16-foot concave wall, before the attack. Some youths had reportedly teased Jabari shortly before the 5 p.m. escape. "He had to have scaled the wall," said zoo director Rich Buickerood. But "this habitat is among the best in the country. This blows our minds." He said he did not know why zoo employees, who were armed with pepper spray, did not use it on the gorilla. A witness said she sheltered a group of children against a wall after she watched the gorilla break out of his enclosure. "He was banging on the door and broke it down, then he jumped out," Diana Gonzalez told Dallas television station WFAA. "He was growling and yelling." Gonzalez said she and several children saw the gorilla jump on top of a woman before they escaped from the area without injury. Other zoo-goers hid inside a restaurant and the monorail surrounding the Wilds of Africa exhibit while authorities tried to subdue the animal, which darted through thick bamboo before emerging on a nature trail and confronting police officers about 5:30 p.m. The gorilla, holding a pair of white children's sandals, got within 15 feet of two tactical officers before they opened fire, Dallas police Lt. Anthony Williams said late Thursday. Cheryl Reichert of Mesquite apparently shielded several children from the gorilla before it snatched her in an aviary exhibit, according to one of the children she was chaperoning. Reichert suffered injuries to her upper left arm and was in good condition at Methodist Central Hospital, said Williams. One child was treated at the scene. Zoo officials said in a prepared statement that the Wilds of Africa section and the Monorail Safari will be closed Friday, but will reopen Saturday. The zoo has been in financial straits and the nonprofit Dallas Zoological Society recently proposed a county takeover. Buickerood said last month that the zoo staff had been cut and maintenance postponed because of the funds shortage. In 1998, a 25-year-old zookeeper was mauled by a gorilla at the zoo after the door to the animal's cage was left open. Information from: The Dallas Morning News via Austin American Statesman. http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/TX_Gorilla_Escape.html
That's a bit surreal. It's unfortunate that people were hurt so they had to kill the gorilla. I wonder what went on in its mind when it went through its rampage. That award-winning gorilla-conservation area needs some fine tuning. Make it a better prison, at least.
Really, if they never would've caught animals and put them on display for human pleasure and entertainment this would've never happened.
Of course. Zoos are far and away the best tool in educating people about the plight of so many animals who are threatened or on the immediate brink of extinction. If we can get rid of zoos, we can keep the vast majority of children ignorant, and then we can encroach upon the rest of the land and be rich, Rich, RICH!!!!
The way zoos used to be run, going out and activly capturing animals to put on display in very poor conditions was just wrong. From what I know about zoos, this isn't done anymore. They only display animals that were born in captivity and only take in animals that were injured in the wild. I'm sure that some animals are being sold, but I think that this is really frowned upon anymore. Not to mention, the conditions that they are enclosed in have really improved. It seems that everything is being done to make their cages at least seem more like a natural environment. I agree that any animal that is capable of being surviving in the wild should be released in it's own environment. I just think that most of the animals are either injured to the point that they couldn't defend themselves, or have been in captivity for so long or were raised in captivity and don't know how to provide for themselves.
oooohhhhhh...now i get it!!! ever met someone who works at a zoo??? seriously, few people care more for animals than these people do.
why'd they kill the gorilla? I don't understand the logic. If a person escapes from his "house" and injures a few people (even a child critically), he would get sent to jail for a while, but not killed. A gorilla who doesn't know any better - kill him???
I assume the person who runs amok can speak and understand human language? The gorilla cannot, nor does a gorilla understand that men in uniform are different than small children. Bad analogy
ima, please, put down the Google Image search, and slowly back away. You coming to the basketball game on the 28th?
But if that person charged police officers he would be shot. If you read the article that is what the gorilla did . It charged police officers and they had to shoot it.
I'm going to try. The church I play for is christening a new sanctuary that Sunday so I may be involved there all day. Still waiting on the details. Did you see some bozo posted a thread in the GARM saying we signed John Starks?
Given that it was the Dallas Police, I'm surprised they didn't shoot at it before they tried anything else. The first I heard of the gorilla escaping was during the traffic reports on the radio. They made it sound like the gorilla was running through the streets of Southern Dallas.
I knew what some of the reaction would be, but it's still bizarre reading it. So a 300 pound gorilla is running amok in the zoo, flinging people about, biting them (has anyone ever noticed the teeth on those suckers??), treating a small child like a chew-toy, charges the police, and "why'd they kill the gorilla?". Good old Liberal Democrat here, but if I was holdin' and was there, I wouldn't have waited for the police to start blasting away... hell, I would have been yelling, "What took you so long??". And I'm a big animal lover and defender of their habitat and wish we did far more in that regard than we do. But sometimes you have to take action and not have a conference about it first. This was one of those times. If anyone "is at fault", it is the designer of this "state of the art" facility. In this case, kudos to the police and stuff the gorilla after taking DNA samples and put the dude on display with a story of what happened. Perhaps that would educate everybody.
Even as a kid I have never liked zoos - they always made me depressed. That said, I know that they now do good work and they are no longer 19th century style - when both humans and animals were on display. I just still don't like to go. My own thing. Nothing against the service they provide (although some zoos really suck and I think they should be shut down). As far as the gorilla, the zoo should have been well equipped with tranquilizers. Why not use them? It is not as if it knew not to charge a police officer. It was most likely scared and confused.
