RedHanded - ShortHand: Harambe

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Shot and killed in front of a crowd of terrified onlookers, Harambe, a western lowland gorilla, will go down in history. His death – seemingly while trying to rescue a small boy who had fallen into his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Biological Gardens – caused ripples across the world.On the ten year anniversary of his death, we try to answer the million-dollar question: did Harambe need to die?--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

Hello. Hello. And welcome to Shorthand. Aren't you lucky? You are? Here we are. And there you are. Listening.

Wherever you are. We're going to, like everybody else is recently, drag you back to 2016. Actually, you wouldn't have to drag me back to 2016. Actually, no, yeah, you would. I was a fucking receptionist. Do I have to go back to 2016 knowing everything I know now? No, you always ask that.

Or am I back? You're not allowed to take the knowledge. I'm just back in 2016. You just have to do it again. Nah, fuck that. Fair upwards and upwards. It was a rough year in a lot of ways, particularly for celebrity deaths. Over the course of those 12 months, we lost such legends as David Bowie, Prince, Carrie Fisher,

George Michael, Alan Rickman, Mohammed Ali, Harper Lee, and Sir Terry Wogan. Big hitters. But the death that occupied the world's media attention, perhaps. more than any of those was no film star. He was no musician, not even a sportsman or a writer. He'd never even been invited to the Met Gala. Ugh, what a loser. In fact, before his passing on the 28th of May 2016,

only a handful of people knew his name. He was, a 17-year-old Western Lowland gorilla called Harambe. And on that day, in his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Biological Gardens, he was shot by a keeper after a three-year-old boy fell through the guardrail. The incident caused outrage across the world. In the aftermath, questions came thick and fast. How did the boy get into the enclosure in the first place? Was it the zoo's fault or the boy's mother's fault?

Did Harambe really need to die? was he trying to rescue the boy or was the child actually in serious danger? The fallout, public backlash and eventual memeification of Harambe has made him one of the most famous animals on the planet. Like Adele, Elvis and Beyonce

he's a celebrity that only needs a first name. Also it doesn't need to be followed by like the qualiter of what he is. You know like Coco the Gorilla? He's just, he just is. Just Harambe. Is this like the anniversary? Yes, it's a 10-year anniversary.

Of course it is. It's 2016. Keep up. I can't. I refuse. This was actually raised in a content planning meeting last year and I was like, no, no, let's wait for 10. Absolutely. It was a right thing to do. Harambe, he's an icon of a brain rot-addicted, meme-soaked generation, whose image has been circulated online over 25 billion with a B times.

So what's going on? What really happened on the day that Harambe lost his life? Was he a kind-hearted gentle giant or a vicious primate menace? Did he really die for our sins? This is the shorthand. Harambe was born in captivity at the Gladys Porte Zoo in Brownsville, Texas. He was a Western lowland gorilla, one of four subspecies of gorillas that exist today, all of which are endangered or critically endangered.

There are roughly 150,000 Western lowland gorillas living in the wild and around 750 in captivity. Given their critically endangered status, you might imagine that Harambe was part of a carefully planned breeding program, hoping to introduce him back into the wild. But you are wrong. Harambe was a bit of an oops baby, actually. Interestingly, according to the National Library of Medicine, female gorillas are given the combined contraceptive pill just like humans. Jesus Christ.

Why? If they're critically endangered, why are we doing that? It's like the opposite if we have to do with pandas. We have to literally hold them together to make them fuck with their little button penises. Why? Why are we not letting them just breed? I don't get it. Oh, man.

I don't know. But anyway, the zoo in Brownsville was hoping to breed from Harambe's mother, Kayla, eventually. but she was a bit on the young side when she got pregnant and hadn't even started her birth control yet. Despite the surprise pregnancy, the zoo had big plans out of the gate. Harambe was going to be part of what they called a survival program. Well, I should hope so, critically endangered species.

No, no. Now, they weren't actually fuss about reintroducing these babies, oopsie or otherwise into the wild. The program was in fact entirely focused. focused on keeping their pockets lined and other zoos stocked with attractions. And like a happy story from 24 hours in A&E, Kayla the underage mum pulled through and gave birth to little Harambe, who immediately became the star of the zoo. Harambe was named as a part of a TV competition run by the zoo to drum up visitors for their new baby boy.

And they came up with Harambe. Okay. A local counsellor called Dan Van Copanol. He won the competition. He shouldn't be allowed to name anything. No. Dan Van. Okay.

He chose the name because of a 1988 song called Harambe by Rita Marley. The song is also known as Working Together for Freedom and Harambe is Swahili for communal labour. Magical. According to the keepers and the photographers who knew Harambe, he was always charismatic. He loved to charm zoo goers by playing out in the open

with his cousins, and he was a bit of a poser. Sadly, however, it wasn't all good vibes for Harambe, and his life was tainted by tragedy early on. On the 6th of January 2002, Harambe's mum, Kayla, half-sister Azuri, and 11-month-old brother were all killed in a horrific accident at the zoo. A tank of chlorine was left next to a space heater. The chlorine heated up and chlorine gas was released into the gorilla enclosure. Oh my God!

They're fucking critically endangered. What are you doing? The three guerrillas who were trapped in their overnight cages all suffocated to death. Harambe was also in the vicinity of the gas but amazingly was able to survive despite being just three years old. I'm going to cry. This is too much. Now even though there was obvious malpractice, the Gladys Porto Zoo only paid a small fine and Harambe stayed. And for the next decade, he was a fixture of their gorilla enclosure.

As he grew into a healthy young silverback, the stoic gentle giant stayed a fan favourite. And even before the events that led to his death, his picture had been taken and shared countless times. But eventually the Gladys Porter Zoo decided that it was time for him to learn adult guerrilla behaviour and join a new social group. So in September 2014, a 15-year-old Harambe was traded to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens. He lived at the zoo for less than two years before he would be tragically shot and killed in front of a group of screaming onlookers. On Saturday the 28th of May, 2016, just one day after his 17th birthday, Harambe and the tourists watching him heard a splash. Everyone looked down into the 15-foot chasm that separated the guerrillas from the public, which contained a small, water-filled moat at the bottom.

On the public side there was a three-foot railing and about four feet of bushes between them and this gap. On the gorilla's side there was nothing. At the bottom of the chasm was a three-year-old boy. He had climbed through the railings and run through the bushes. Not seeing the drop, he had fallen down into the shallow water below. Seeing the commotion unfolding, the keeper signalled for Harambe and the two female guerrillas he shared.

its enclosure with to come inside. The two females returned inside, but Harambe paused and then walked over to the moat that the boy had fallen into. Then he began climbing down to the child. And we're sure you've all seen the video, but for those of you who haven't, or need a little reminder, we're going to describe what happened next. After lowering himself down into the moat, Harambe made his way over to the little boy, who had made his way into the corner and was cut.

clearly upset and in pain. At first, Harambe appeared to inspect the child inquisitively and remarkably gently. But as the screaming got louder from the growing crowd, Harambe became agitated and probably protective. It's important to point out that while guerrillas are remarkably similar to humans in a lot of ways, they are a lot more durable that we are, and that includes baby gorillas. A quick Google search will bring up videos that show A, guerrillas are very protective of their young and B, they fling their kids around like rag dolls. If a male or female gorilla feels like their kid is in danger, they will not hesitate to grab

that kid by the arm or leg and sprint to safety, violently dragging their kid behind them. If their kid is being annoying, they also don't hesitate to smack them around the back of the head, hard. Harambe did not hit the boy who had fallen into the enclosure, but he did panic and drag him from one end of the moat to the other by his leg in a way that must have been absolutely horrifying to watch. A few times during the ten minutes that Harambe and the child were in the enclosure, Harambe violently dragged the boy around the moat, clearly trying to find a quieter and less intense spot where there were fewer people screaming at him.

But he also, as several points, gently lifted the boy up onto his feet when he was laying in the water and stood over the boy, carefully holding his hand, and watching out for danger. Harambe used a ladder to carry the boy out of the moat and actually took him to the door that the keepers used to get in and out of the enclosure. Oh my God, I'm going to cry, this is too much. The 200-kilogorilla then appeared to stand over the wailing boy

to wait for the keepers to arrive. And then, when the keepers did arrive, they made the split second decision to shoot Harambe in the head, killing him instantly. The little boy was then taken to the local hospital where he was assessed and found to only have minor injuries. And before we go on to the public reaction, which we all remember,

unless you're too young to in which case go away. We're going to clarify a few bits of the Harambe narrative. We've watched several interviews with experts, including the highly respected late Jane Goodall, who dedicated her life to studying and lecturing on primate behaviour, and every expert we saw agrees that Harambe was not true, trying to hurt the boy. While nobody can tell what Harambe was actually thinking, none of his actions pointed towards any kind of deliberately violent intention. But the experts we found

all also agreed that Harambe did need to be shot. The reason we can be so sure that Harambe didn't want to hurt the boy is because if he wanted to, the boy would have already been dead. Harambe was 200 kilos. That's 31 stu. of pure gorilla muscle. As a silver-back western lowland gorilla, he was stronger than any human who has ever lived. He could have pulled that boy apart like something from a horror movie,

but he didn't. But he also violently dragged the boy from one end of the moat to the other. By pure luck, the boy was left relatively unharmed. However, one twisted limb or knock to the head, that would have been a very different story. Even once Harambe was waiting by the door

the enclosure, he could have freaked out at any moment and dragged the boy to somewhere he thought was safe. Lots of people have also asked, why didn't they just use a tranquilizer dart? As anyone who's watched Animal Planet will tell you, tranquilizers take minutes to fully sedate an animal, especially one the sights of Harambe. Being hit by a dart would have almost certainly caused him to panic and therefore risked the life of the boy. With all of that in mind, let's talk about what happened after Harambe was shot. Once the footage of the incident, found its way onto social media, the public went completely feral. Immediately, people began turning up outside the zoo with banners mourning Harambe,

and in some cases throwing accusations at those responsible. Many felt like the footage clearly showed that Harambe was caring for the boy and had taken him to the keepers and he was trying to do the right thing. Others blamed the boy's mum for letting him fall into the enclosure in the first place. And loads of other people blamed the zoo itself. The boy's mother, who had been facing away from her son trying to rank, three of her other children received an enormous amount of vitriol online. And for that reason, we've chosen not to name the boy or the boy's family,

because you'll go on to see it got pretty grim for them. Loads of people took it upon themselves to feel like the mum had taken her eye off the ball and was therefore responsible for Harambe's death. And I can say with my whole heart that none of those people who think that have children. Or have even tried to wrangle one through a supermarket. when it's got a scooter. Other people seemed to see the incident from the position of, back in my day, kids were better behaved and suggested that the boy was lacking discipline

and needed a good smack and that's why he ran away and fell. He's three. Come on. He's three years old. And that crowd hammered the boy's family on social media. Initially, the mum put out a Facebook post saying that people were quick to judge her parenting and that she was just grateful that the right people had been there to save her son from harm. This post, while entirely understandable, did absolutely nothing to quell the anger.

And within days, a petition on change.org had reached half a million signatures asking for local authorities to conduct an investigation on the child's home environment. The family pulled back from social media and was eventually forced to move to another state to start again, without all the hate. The Cincinnati Zoo also got battered on social media, and in all fairness, they do hold the most blame. Things got off to a bad start when Thane Maynard, the director of the zoo, mispronounced Harambe's name during a press conference and then spoke to the public as if they were stupid for not understanding the situation. Oh no. Classic. Wonderful stuff. He told the public that people

criticizing the decision to shoot Harambe don't understand primate biology and the danger that the child was in, which might be true, but it certainly came across as patronising and heartless. He then went on to inform the press that despite the fact the boy had been able to climb through the barrier the zoo wasn't negligent He said Just like you lock your car and people can still get into your car People can get through barriers

What Yeah, what? I don't understand It's a zoo, make it child safe Yeah, there's children at the zoo It's mainly for them It's for children This went down like a lead balloon with the public Yet more positions received countless signatures

asking for the zoo to be investigated, shut down or prosecuted. Eventually, when the dust settled, neither the mother nor the zoo were formally prosecuted for her ambay's death or the three-year-old boy's safety. However, the zoo was forced to erect a better and less penetrable fence around the gorilla enclosure. Which like, I'm looking at pictures of and I'm like, are you fucking for real?

Looking at the old barren. It is a significantly better barrier. The new barrier is like... Even the smallest child isn't getting through that. Yeah, like, it's not even as good as a barrier my parents are put up around our garden to stop our dog escaping. Are you for real? Just some fucking chicken wire would have done it.

And then, of course, came the memes. As with all things on the internet, what started off as a heartfelt outpouring of grief was quickly replaced with irony. Millions of memes saying, R-IP Harambe, justice for Harambe, and yes, even Dix Out for Harambe were shared across social media. Shirts were made saying George Bush killed Harambe and Jetfield can't melt Harambe in a shit-posty crossover with 9-11 conspiracies. Why not?

What is the internet? If not, but for this. As of 2023, it has estimated the iconic image of Harambe taken on his first day at the Cincinnati. Zoo in 2014 has been shared over 25 billion times. Wow. The image was sold as an NFT, remember them, by the original photographer who's called Geoffie McCurry, and he described Harambe as a true friend. He sold it for $5 million.

That is a true friend. In the years since his death, hundreds of charity auctions have been held in Harambe's name. Notably, in 2021, during the COVID-game stop investment shenanigans, many people who made money donated portions of their profit to adopt a gorilla. And hundreds of thousands of dollars were sent to guerrilla charities across the world, making a huge difference to the ongoing welfare of the species. I actually believe I read but this morning that the Lolan gorilla is no longer endangered.

In my desperate quest to find good news to talk about on Under the Duve. How's that going? Not great. So perhaps some of that attention. had a positive outcome and was directed to the correct place in the end. But poor Arambe can confirm she is crying. So sad. There's something about gorillas and other primates, particularly orangutans,

that make me feel really sad. If I just see an orangutan, a picture of an orangutan, I will start. Right. Me too. There's something about them that makes me feel so sad. Yeah. But anyway, there you go. I think more so with orangutans because of my brain I'm like, they can't kill me. A gorilla I know they can.

Oh, a big male orangutan would definitely kill you. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. But my brain just doesn't agree. Yeah. I was really lucky enough to see one in the wild because when I went to Indonesia, went to North Sumatra and went to like orangutan preservation area, a sanctuary area. Like they're wild.

They just like protected. and went there and they say you'll see mums and babies like they're like pretty much like hanging around all over the place but if you see a male

that's like quite rare and when we were out there we saw one and we were with the guide and he was like okay nobody make eye contact everybody just keep walking he was fucking massive

and he started following us and even the guide looked nervous which I was like this is like when cabin crew looks scared I'm not I'm not happy with this but I didn't die it was fine

apparently they've all got hep C oh God there you go there you go That's why you can't hug him anymore. Or Dutch goalas. Because of the clap.

Anyway, that's it, guys. That is the 10-year anniversary of Harambe. A very, very sad story. And, yeah, ultimately, I think it probably was a very difficult decision for the person who did the shooting. But I think as sad as it makes me, it probably was the right decision. I agree. And that's that. Goodbye.

Bye.