Back in 1990, truck driver Rick Swope took a trip to his local zoo in Detroit. Unfortunately, when Swope stopped to check out the chimpanzees, something tragic happened. Two male chimps had engaged in a fight with each other. While trying to break free from the scuffle, one of the chimps, Jo-Jo, ended up putting himself in even more danger. Jo-Jo fell off the cliffside of his pen and into the moat below. The moat is only meant to act as a fence to keep the primates within their confines. Considering chimps cannot swim, Jo-Jo was almost guaranteed to drown.
As worried zoo-goers looked on, Swope leaped into action. While the guardrails that enclose a zoo exhibit serve an important purpose, Swope found a pretty good reason to breach them. In fact, famed primatologist Jane Goodall even commended Swope’s actions after the fact by saying, “If you see that look with your eyes, and you feel it in your heart, you have to jump in and try to help.”
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