The parents of the 4-year-old boy who fell into the Cincinnati Zoo’s gorilla enclosure are expected to face imprisonment after a petition requesting their arrest received over ten million signatures in half an hour.
The change.org petition calls for the pair’s immediate detention within the zoo’s gorilla enclosure alongside the remaining primates:
“This legally-binding petition demands that the parents who caused the vicious and senseless killing of the world’s most popular gorilla, Harambe, be caged in the Cincinnati Zoo gorilla enclosure until they are deemed fit to raise their child, by better parents on Facebook.”
It goes on to claim the mother is particularly culpable, after taking her eyes off her son for almost 4 seconds, believed to be the longest period of time any parent has ever done that.
While the petition stops short of asking for the 4-year-old boy to be thrown in alongside his father and mother, it does insist that the pre-schooler be forced to watch his parents’ long, or presumably short, stay in the enclosure.
Reaction to the news of the petition has been overwhelmingly unanimous:
“It’s good enough for them!” one mother-of-four posted on Facebook. “The pair of them are worse than two Josef Fritzel’s.”
“They totally deserve this,” another parent commented. “I haven’t taken my eyes of my 6-year-old since since he was 2, and won’t let him within 75 miles of a zoo, aquarium or farm.”
Another eyewitness concurred. “That mother should have gotten a babysitter for her kid if she wanted to go to the zoo so badly,” she claimed.
“This is why kids need harnesses and shock collars,” wrote one of the thousands of disgruntled animal rights Facebook pages, which received over 200K likes.
Surprisingly, the zoo is “comfortable” with the arrangement if deemed fit by authorities. “So long as no one is blaming us, we’re okay with it,” the zoo director told the BSJ. During their stay, the zoo’s dangerous animal response team will be on hand to shoot the parents should they interact with the remaining gorillas in any way.
The Cincinnati chief-of-police declared his department takes requests from online petitions “very seriously” and said the punishment seems just:
“With over 10 million signatures, especially from Facebook users who are notorious for their extensive knowledge of the legal system, I highly doubt a judge will even bother with a trial and move straight to sentencing,” he said.
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