Contributed by: Jenny
A couple took their two year old son, Maddox, to the Pittsburgh Zoo.
The boy wanted a closer look at the African painted dogs.
His mother lifted him to stand on top of the railing.
Under the railing was a fenced screen.
The little boy lost his balance, fell out of his mothers arms, and past the fenced screen – into the pit.
The mother screamed for her boy, but nothing could be done.
Particularly after recently watching “The Grey”, the images of this tragedy are just so very heartbreaking.
Please, all, please, be vigilent in sending positive thoughts and prayers of gentleness and healing into this community, to the zoo keepers, to the other zoo visitors (parents and children) who witnessed this tragedy, to the police officers who tried unsuccessfully to shoot the dogs away from this little guy, and for this family.
The guilt, pounding on top of loss, must be absolutely crushing to this mother.
Please, think of her with compassion. All she was trying to do was gift her son with a closer look at what looked to him to be harmless puppies.
But he slipped past her fingers, instead.
This outside link has an official news report.
Heartbreaking. When I read this earlier today all I could do was hurt with the knowledge that every parent has, at one time or another, done something to put our children in harms way in the name of love or fun…my heart breaks. May the shouts and visions be quieted with prayer.
O my goodness, this is so sad. The guilt she must have. I am definetly praying for her and her family. Poor little boy!!
That’s terrible and I’m sure so many people on the Internet will place blame on the mom, but honestly I love my baby and I’m sure more than once I have done something possibly dangerous with him for the sake of fun. How many times have you seem people give their little ones a ride on their shoulders and of course there is chance the kid could fall, but we do it anyway, cuz children love it. This mom was no different. She was trying to enrich her child’s life and share something fun. I’m sure she already feels horrible beyond words. I really hope people are gentle with this, cuz no matter how judgement people want to get about how it happened they can never even imagine what that must have been like to witness such a tragedy happen to your own child. My heart goes out to that family.