I found that the big cat house was the worst place. There was a wonderful outside enclosure for lions, built by Grzimek in the ’50s and I retained it like it was. Because for me, first of all, I haven’t had the money to re-do everything and it was good. And I thought it’s a good example to show the visitor that already in the mid ’50s, Grzimek was visionary enough to build wonderful outside enclosures for lions. But the other part of the house, the inside and outside enclosures, were about three by four meters, tiled, concrete floor, fence or even double fences, so it was really a horrible exhibit. And for ethical reasons, I really didn’t want to retain big cats in these surroundings. And I sent out all the big cats, except we retained the Sumatran tiger and the lion outside enclosure. And I added large labels, the house is too old.
