The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Harambe, the gorilla shot by the Cincinnati Zoo after he began roughhousing with a child who fell into the gorilla’s enclosure, has returned . . . sort of:
Five years after his death, Harambe the gorilla has found a new place to be memorialized— New York City.
A seven-foot statue of the gorilla, who was killed in 2016 by an emergency response team protecting a 3-year-old boy who fell into his exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, has appeared in New York City’s Bowling Green Park on Wall Street, opposite the famous Charging Bull statue.
According to local news reports, the bananas surrounding the bull statue are part of a protest from Sapien.Network, meant to illustrate how “bananas” Wall Street and the wealth disparity in the country has become.
In the five-plus years since Harambe’s death, the gorilla has become a meme, and a sort of bizarre Internet touchstone. But it’s worth remembering that the Cincinnati Zoo did nothing wrong when it killed him to protect the human life that was at risk.