Cincinnati Zoo takes down its Twitter account after being bombarded by Harambe memes

Thomson Reuters

Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo is pictured in this undated handout photo provided by Cincinnati Zoo.

On Monday, the Twitter account of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, former home of Harambe, the 17-year-old gorilla who was shot and killed by zoo officials after a three-year-old boy fell into his moat, was taken down.

When asked about their Twitter account being down, Zoo officials said "Thanks. We know," Cincinnati.com reports.

Harambe's death was widely mourned and the gorilla was the subject of a plethora of Internet memes, signs, petitions and hashtags like #justiceforharambe.

The deactivation of Cincinnati Zoo's Twitter account comes just days after zoo director Thane Maynard's own Twitter account was apparently hacked on Saturday night. The user who hacked Maynard's Twitter, who went by the handle @prom, changed Maynard's Twitter avatar to a photo of Harambe and also tweeted, "Hacked by @prom#justiceforharambe" from Maynard's account - the tweet was later deleted.

Maynard and other zoo officials are fed up with the repeated reminders of Harambe's death. "We are not amused by the memes, petitions and signs about Harambe," Maynard said in an e-mail to the Associated Press.

"Our zoo family is still healing, and the constant mention of Harambe makes moving forward more difficult for us."