Young Gerson de Melo Machado, known as Vaquerinho, died on Sunday (30/11) after breaking into the lion enclosure at the Paraíba Zoo. He was attacked by a lioness and he could not resist.
On social media, a guardianship counselor who helped the man when he was a minor posted a harrowing story about his life.
According to her, Gerson lived a life full of abandonment, rape and suffering since he was ten years old. The text quickly spread and moved to the web.
“Gerson, my senseless boy,” she began, “How many times, in the Child Protection Board room, have you said that you were going to board a plane to go on safari in Africa to take care of lions. And you still tried. And I thanked God when the airport told me that you had cut the fence and entered the landing gear of an ogre plane. Thank God, they watched on camera before the tragedy happened.”
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After the counselor remembered the old episode, she continued the text, saying that she had fought for the rights of the young man.
“I spent eight years accompanying you, fighting, struggling to guarantee your rights. When you first entered my office, you were only 10 years old. Counselor Patricia Falcao and I received you from the hands of the Federal Highway Police (PRF), and found you alone in the BR. Since then, the entire protection network was looking for me whenever something happened to you,” he recalls.
Finally, she expressed her regret for the image created of the young man and which was reflected in Gerson’s death.
“I couldn’t see you as social media portrayed you. I met the child deprived of his mother’s family authority, and forbidden from adoption like the other four brothers. I just wanted you to return as the son of your mother who had schizophrenia and had no conditions for care. I also found you suffering from mental disorders. But society, without knowing your story, preferred to throw you into the lion’s cage.”
The text quickly went viral and moved netizens on social media. “It’s so sad! He just wanted to put an end to his suffering,” one profile said. “May he have the peace he never had in life,” another wished. “Just further proof of how incompetent our country is when we need it to be,” another fumed.