CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Zoo plans to reopen its gorilla exhibit with a higher, reinforced barrier installed after a boy got into the exhibit and was dragged by a 400-pound gorilla, which was then shot and killed.
The exhibit’s reopening Tuesday comes a day after a prosecutor said the boy’s mother would not be charged and that the 3-year-old had “scampered off” as children sometimes do.
“If you don’t think a three-year-old can scamper away quickly, you’ve never had kids,” Joe Deters told reporters.
Deters says the mother was distracted by another child and she did not display the kind of “heedless indifference” that would have met Ohio law’s definition of child endangering.
The boy apparently climbed over the exhibit’s outer barrier May 28 before falling about 15 feet into a shallow moat. A special response team shot and killed the 17-year-old western lowland gorilla to protect the boy.
The family says the boy is doing well.
The gorilla’s death set off a torrent of criticism online. Some commenters vilified the zoo for shooting the animal. Others said the boy’s mother should have watched him more closely.