A serious tragedy very nearly happened this week at the Cincinnati Zoo. Somehow a 4-year-old child escaped from his mother and wound up in the gorilla compound where he was snatched up by a 17-year-old male silverback gorilla. Zoo officials quickly made the decision to shoot the gorilla. The child was rescued and is in good condition.
What happened on social media and on television was a very public outcry over the death of the gorilla. Some were calling for the imprisonment of the parents of the child while others were threatening law suits against the zoo. Reportedly, the parents have received death threats. Conspicuously absent from most of the discussion was relief that the child survived the encounter.
And here is where I marvel at how far we have fallen in valuing human life. In the Old Testament Book of Genesis, God determines to create humankind in “the image of God.” Whether history or allegory, the point is that, of all the created life on Earth, only humans have a spark of the divine in them. We also read in Scripture that humans are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” It is even declared that they are created “a little lower than God (or “angels” in the KJV).” No other beings have that distinction.
Lest I be misunderstood, I love animals. I cried when I buried my cat of 20 years and I daily feed the local birds, chipmunks, squirrels, opossums, and raccoons that wander into my back yard. I don’t even kill the back yard snakes unless they are poisonous. My wife says that I provide a buffet for the hawks but I see little evidence of that.
I haven’t been hunting in over 20 years and I would much rather look at a deer than shoot it, but I take no issue with those who hunt for food. I support animal cruelty laws and believe that all animals should be treated humanely. Not because they are human-like, but because humans are God-like.
Nevertheless, I do not in any way believe that human life and animal life are equally precious. Do I think that some life is more valuable than other life? You bet I do. There are federal criminal penalties for tampering with the eggs of a bald eagle.
And when it comes to sea turtle eggs, federal law provides even greater protection (and criminal penalties as severe as $100,000 and a year in prison) if you “take, harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, or capture any marine turtle, turtle nest, and/or eggs, or attempt to engage in any such conduct.”
The law recognizes that the life in the eggs is something that should be given the same level of protection as the animal itself. We do not give the same protection to “pre-hatched” humans. We value humans less that we do eagles or turtles.
It is, then, no surprise that the outrage is not that a human child was in danger of being mauled to death but, rather, that a gorilla possessing the strength of 10 men was killed to save the child.
It is sad that such a magnificent beast was killed. It is sadder still that a great number of people apparently believe his life is thought to be equal to, or even superior to, the life of a 4-year-old child.
[David Epps is the pastor of Christ the King Church (www.ctkcec.org.). He is the bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-South, (www.midsouthdiocese.org) which consists of Georgia and Tennessee and is the associate endorser for his denomination’s military chaplains. He may be contacted at frepps@ctkcec.org.]
