In light of the recent tragedy at the Cincinnati Zoo in the death of Western Lowland Gorilla Harambe and the enormous loss of this CRITICALLY ENDANGERED animal, we would like to pass Harambe's Law, so there are legal consequences when an endangered animal is harmed or killed due to the negligence of visitors.  If this law is enacted, it will not only protect the animals, but will hold individuals accountable for actions resulting in harm or death of an animal. 

No one wants to see any harm come to a human visiting the zoo, but this entire tragedy could have been avoided, had this little boy been properly supervised.  It is completely negligent for any man, woman or child to enter an exhibit or restricted area at a zoo, sanctuary or wild animal park.  To ensure this never happens again, we would like to enact Harambe's Law, that if at anytime this shall occur, the negligent party and or party's be held financially and criminally responsible for any harm and or loss to an animal, specifically when said animal is Critically Endangered. 

Working with these individual gorillas on a daily basis as to educate the public and all four sub-species; Western Lowland, Cross River, Mountain and Eastern Lowland, on their lives, their needs, their plights and the importance of respecting and preserving them, has been at the center of my work.  There certainly are laws to protect them in the wild, but we also need to have laws protecting them from negligence of the public visitors.  Please help us to ensure that the tragedy that happened in Cincinnati, never happens again, and if it does, the person and or persons will be held responsible.  

This is not the first time that this has happened in the gorilla world, it happened on August 31, 1986 at the Durrell Wildlie Park and again on August 16, 1996 at the Brookfield Zoo.  In these two cases the gorilla's were not killed and both of the children were rescued.  It is too late to save Harambe, but we can protect not only the people that come to see these animals, but need to protect the animals themselves.