A new photo appears to show the gorilla that was shot on Saturday after a 4-year-old boy fell into its enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo.
The photo shows a zoo security official walking in front of the enclosure as Harambe, the 17-year-old gorilla, sit in the background. The picture was uploaded to Facebook and was shared by WCPO.
On Monday evening, the zoo defended its decision to use lethal force to protect the child.
“We stand by our decision, and we'd make the same call today,” Thane Maynard, director of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, said on Monday.
He added that people should not “engage in Monday-morning quarterbacking and do not understand primate biology,” Fox News reported.
His comments came after animal rights organizations---as well as numerous people on social media---expressed outrage over the shooting death of Harambe.
The 400-pound great ape was “clearly agitated and clearly disoriented,” he said, adding it was “acting erratically.” When that happened, the zoo’s dangerous-animal response team was called in.
Video footage of the incident shows the boy being dragged by the gorilla. Maynard said the gorilla was dragging the boy around by the head and was hitting the concreted.
