Quickies: This Should Be Noncontroversial

     Yet it isn’t – and one guess why:

     Famed animal zookeeper, television host and director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium defended the decision to put down the 450 pound gorilla named Harambe to protect the life of the 4-year-old boy who fell into the enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo.

     "I’ve seen him take a green coconut, which you can’t bust open with a sledgehammer and squish it like this," Hanna told "Good Morning America" about Harambe, gesturing with his hand the ease with which gorillas can crush fruit. "You’re dealing with either human life or animal life here. So what is the decision? I think it’s very simple to figure that out."

     "I can tell you now, that there's no doubt in my mind the child would not be here today if they hadn't made the decision," Hanna said.

     Yet the animal-rights crowd, which has demonstrated by its actions that it really doesn’t care about the lives of animals, thinks otherwise:

     ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS gathered today for a Memorial Day vigil for the gorilla killed at the Cincinnati Zoo after a four-year-old boy slipped into an exhibit and a special zoo response team concluded his life was in danger.

     Anthony Seta of Cincinnati called the 17-year-old western lowland gorilla’s death “a senseless tragedy,” but said the purpose today wasn’t to point fingers but a tribute to the gorilla named Harambe.

     “People can shout at the parents and people can shout at the zoo,” Seta said. “The fact is that a gorilla that just celebrated his birthday has been killed.”

     Would these...persons have held a “vigil” for the four-year-old, had the gorilla killed him, whether deliberately or otherwise? But let’s not stop there. Let’s ask a couple more questions:

• Suppose the gorilla had already harmed the boy, perhaps by breaking one of his arms?
• Suppose it hadn’t been a gorilla in that cage, but a lion, or a reticulated python or anaconda?
• And suppose it hadn’t been a four-year-old boy, but one of these animal-rights idiots?

     Do you think they would still say the same things?