Gorilla was 'trying to PROTECT' four-year-old boy at zoo before it was shot dead

 

 WARNING: Video contains upsetting content. Animal rights campaigners have slammed Cincinnati Zoo for shooting the 17-year-old gorilla dead.

An eyewitness has claimed however that the gorilla was NOT trying to hurt the child, and was instead trying to protect it.

Kim O’Connor told WLWT5: "People are yelling, 'There's a boy in the water. There's a boy in the water'."
When people began screaming, Miss O'Connor claimed that this scared the gorilla, who was at the time protecting the child.


She added: "I don't know if the screaming did it or too many people hanging on the edge, if he thought we were coming in, but then he pulled the boy down away further from the big group.

"The little boy himself had already been talking about wanting to [go into the enclosure] ... get in the water. The mother's like, 'No, you're not, no, you're not'."
Social media users have slammed the zoo for killing the gorilla, despite claims by zoo bosses that the child was in "a life-threatening situation".