Harambe

I have been photographing animals in zoos for more than six years now and have never doubted the necessity of animals being kept in captivity for humans to look at them. The benefit of zoos for species conversation outweighed all other arguments. The news about Harambe, however, made me think. Sure enough, the opponents of zoos are lamenting about the Gorilla’s innocence, how unfair it is to shoot a Gorilla simply because it did nothing but behave like a Gorilla and how this incident proves how morally wrong the concept of zoos is in general. And to some degree I agree with them. What happened in Cincinnati surely wasn’t the Gorilla’s fault. Using it to question the concept of species conversation in zoos altogether, however, goes a bit too far for my thinking. After all, for many species out there zoos are the only chance to escape extinction. This is not only true for Gorillas but for many others as well.

Anyway, this image is dedicated to Harambe and all the Gorillas out there who are threatened.

Click for a larger version.