What I don’t understand about this sad incident, is why a tranquiliser gun wasn’t used, instead of a firearm.

Thank you, Danna, for reminding us of what happened, and, yes, parents need to be more mindful of what their children are up to in (public) spaces like this. At Melbourne Zoo I witnessed a 10-y-o boy repeatedly poking a stick at an orangutan and the mother repeatedly said, “Oh, please stop that. Please don’t do that.” But she took no action to stop the kid. Then she got angry with me when I took the stick away from the boy. “You have no right to interfere,” she told me. “I could have you charged with assault. It seemed to fall on deaf ears when I pointed out that what the boy was doing to the animal amounted to assault. “It’s just an animal,” she said. I told her that, with that attitude, she had not right to even come to the zoo. At that point I was applauded by others and the woman grabbed her son by the hand and hauled him off. We clearly heard her say, “We’re obviously not welcome here.” How do you educate someone like that?