Jack Hanna Agrees ‘1000 percent’ With Zoo’s Decision to Kill Gorilla

Monday on “CBS This Morning,” while discussing the Cincinnati Zoo’s decision to kill a gorilla to save a 4-year-old boy who got into the gorillas enclosure, the Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium Jack Hanna said he agrees “1000 percent” with the decision to kill the animal.

Hanna said, “The Hanna family, the Columbus Zoo and the zoo world, this is obviously a terrible tragedy, but we have given tens of millions to the gorilla world. I have a home three miles from where the mountain gorillas live in Rwanda. Watch that gorilla’s response. He doesn’t know what is going on. And this is a silver back, not a female. He is alarmed. Yes, he goes to look at the little child. What happens when you tranquilize the animal? I’ve done research in the wild.  I have seen what happens, I know what happens. When that dart hits the animal and you can imagine, it is like a shot, but he jumps. What if he had a hold of that little boy. I have seen a silver back gorilla take a green coconut and crush it — beyond the strength of anything you know. So it’s a choice between a human life and an animal life.”

When asked if the zoo made the right decision in killing the animal Hanna added, “I agree 1000 percent. yes,” he added. “Thank goodness the human being is alive today because of the decision the Cincinnati Zoo made.”

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