PETA Statement: Gorilla’s Charge Toward Little Girl at Zoo Is No Surprise

For Immediate Release:
April 17, 2015

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders released a statement regarding the silverback gorilla who quickly charged at a little girl at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo on Thursday, cracking the glass of the enclosure that held him in the process:

Humans share 98 percent of our DNA with gorillas, so it should never be a surprise when a gorilla who has been locked up and put on display in a zoo reacts just as we would—with boredom, frustration, anger, and even psychosis. The only surprise is that incidents like this one don’t happen more often. Zoos simply can’t come close to matching the space, diversity, companionship, and freedom that animals enjoy in the wild, and that’s why PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.