Well when I first went into the zoo business, animal dealers were the only source of animals for zoos. And again, many of the animals that were available to zoos at that time, again were the byproduct of the destruction of their natural habitat. Because in the Third World countries: Africa, India, South America, Mexico, the whole concept was get rid of the wilderness and turn it into productive crops and crop land. So a lotta these animals were byproducts of that. There were a lot of animal dealers and they were the only source. If you wanted a number of antelope or carnivores, lions, tigers, you bought ’em from a dealer. And it was the way that the world worked at that time. It wasn’t until the ’60s after World War II that people began being aware that some of the pristine wilderness areas of the world were disappearing, that some of the animals are becoming endangered and that there needs to be more conservation and that even zoos and some zoo directors and the concept at the AZA meetings was we need to begin breeding programs for the most endangered species like Galapagos tortoises, orangutans, gorillas.
