Kaley Cuoco took to Instagram Monday to speak out against the Cincinnati Zoo's killing of their gorilla Harambe.
The 17-year-old western lowland gorilla was shot and killed Saturday after a 4-year-old boy crawled through a barrier and some bushes to get into the endangered gorilla's pen.
"[O]nce again, another senseless horrendous animal being killed over people not using their brains," Cuoco, who is an animal rights activist, wrote. "If you watch the footage, you see this gorgeous animal holding that child's hand. Do with that, what you will. As sad as this makes me, a part of me is happy for that amazing creature doesn't have to live in captivity another day."
She also referenced footage from the incident that showed the ape with the child. Video shows the gorilla dragging the boy, picking him up and carrying him.
After backlash from the public over the death of the gorilla, zoo officials admitted that the boy was never under attack, but said they could not just tranquilize the animal.
"The idea of waiting and shooting it with a hypodermic was not a good idea," director Thane Maynard said at a press conference Monday, per People magazine. "That would have definitely created alarm in the male gorilla. When you dart an animal, anesthetic doesn’t work in one second, it works over a period of a few minutes to 10 minutes. The risk was due to the power of that animal."
Almost 200,000 people have signed a Change.org petition demanding charges be brought against both the Cincinnati Zoo and the parents of the 4-year-old boy.
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