 Before the attack, the woman was a regular visitor of the zoo (on average 4 times per week) and claimed to have a special bond with Bokito, regularly touching the glass between her and the gorilla, making eye contact with him and smiling at him.In October 2010, the city of Rotterdam decided to reduce its yearly funding of Blijdorp from nearly 4.5 to about 0.8 million euro until 2015.The zoo and its supporters protested the decision, claiming it is unclear if the zoo can continue to operate with the reduced budget.