This poor, poor little girl. You know what, it’s quite plausible that she’s devastated at the thought of not having her dad in her life - abuse within families is as complicated as it is horrific, and it could not be clearer that the adults in her life are encouraging her feelings of loss and guilt, rather than those…

In the dark. As they rode by. They see the activity behind the dumpster. Something seems wrong about it to them. They turn back to investigate. They intervene. They call for help. They hold the perpetrator until the authorities arrive. They provide eyewitness testimony. They don’t seek the limelight, in fact they shun…

I was thinking about that. A reassuring hug from the gorilla probably would have broken every rib and could have fatally crushed him. I don’t understand why trying to understand the gorilla serves any purpose, other than to muddy the waters and focus blame.

This is insightful, thank you! The commenter was saying the same, that male gorillas can and do kill infant gorillas as a show of dominance.

I’m not commenting on this gorilla and the kid one way or another, but I was at the Toronto Zoo in the mid 90s when they had an infant gorilla, and I definitely remember that it got up, toddled near to the silverback, and was promptly picked up by an ankle and THROWN across the enclosure. The males don’t mess around…

If it weren’t for certain statements, I would believe that. But I don’t see the point of bringing up the extremely good outcome that happened at Brookfield Zoo 20 years ago or the statement how how the gorilla was just putting his arm around the kid, unless it was to make Maynard feel worse.

Of course, because he’s a PoC!

One of the gorillas in a zoo near me ripped the arm off its newborn infant. I don’t understand those thinking this gorilla gave a shit about this random human baby.

I’m not the original commenter, but my ex-wife is a biologist, and I accompanied her on quite a few lab excursions through her BA, MA, and PhD experience. Many female animals (e.g., felines, rodents) will kill and eat their young if they experience stress post delivery. Male animals (primates, felines, etc) will…

Exactly...it could’ve been a combination of all of that. Dominance display, protection from the crowd, showing them “This little dude is mine now so step off”, mixed in with a dose of “Why the fuck did a baby just fall from the sky?”

No, I’m acting like low-grade misogyny is not on no matter what the subject and that the people beating their breasts over the gorilla are mostly assholes actuated by unexamined, knee-jerk fweelings for fuzzy mammals (also, racism) rather than anything approaching a thoughtful, ethical worldview. You can tell by the…

They also called the gorillas out of the enclosure and he did not comply. What else could they do? Tranquilize him and hope he doesn’t go ape-shit? (bad pun, I know.) Wait and hope he doesn’t hurt the kid? It’s not like they marched up to the enclosure and immediately shot him. This wasn’t a split second decision,…

I understand. I don’t suspect she’s being snarky at all, and I’m not particularly dismayed that her concern first and foremost is for the gorillas (hence her asking about opportunities for them to emote and grieve the loss). That’s mostly lovely and to be expected from someone who embraced, to a certain extent,…

Apparently some news outlets are revealing the family’s name and going through the child’s father’s criminal history, which is disgusting. Whatever your hot take on this sad story is, let’s all agree that whether or not the kid’s dad has been arrested has fuck all to do with this horrible event.

My dad used to flip me around by my ankles so in my family this is classic toddler handling. I’m also part gorilla so....

Literally did this two hours ago to drag a 3 year old out of my bed.

Classic toddler handling. Don’t tell me you’ve never done it.

I’m so tired of this story in every single way.

So many men I’ve dated have a similar story. It’s usually a babysitter, but sometimes a neighbor or even an older relative. When I suggest that they’ve been affected negatively by it, they deny, deny, deny. Even the polyamorous guy who clearly couldn’t relate to women in any way but sexually and admitted he didn’t…

My ex’s 17 year old “babysitter” took his virginity when he was 12. When he told me this, I asked if he ever got counseling for being molested and he acted like what happened to him was completely normal. Fast forward to nearly 13 years later and he still doesn’t think he was raped/taken advantage of. As a friend (&…