Well, OSHA came in and- But see, it was a really- We had a manual and our curator would read the manual to new keepers and it obviously had all the nuts and bolts and you don’t go near bears, cats, tigers, you know, you stay so many feet away… Read More
On another level, you developed, talking education, you developed a docent volunteer program, or was that in place before you came to the zoo?… Read More
No, that was, it was started by- I remember I had like 1200 volunteers involved in the zoo at one point. It was started in my administration and it was people that were always around. It was probably one of the early docent programs. And again, we had some interesting-… Read More
My bunny, you know, so. I says, well, you’re dragging it, Lauren. She said it won’t hurt him. But she was a cute kid. And eventually she begged me, and I eventually, I hired her at the zoo as a keeper. So she became a keeper in the bear area. Read More
And it became a very trying time for me, because a lot of mistruths. You know, when it becomes, it became sort of a legal battle when they were vying for money, and it was a bad time. It was not a time that I enjoyed picking up a newspaper,… Read More
Were there safety things that were initiated after that, that somehow enforced better things in your mind?… Read More
I was gonna say, what were your most frustrating times as director in Cincinnati, but also in Los Angeles?… Read More
Did you have frustrating times in Cincinnati?… Read More
Some areas of difficulty in Cincinnati, I had a terrible accident occur in the zoo. I had a young lady, she was my daughter’s best friend, Laurie Stober. They stood up at each other’s wedding. She was coming in my house probably for 20 some years, in and out of… Read More
What you got there?… Read More
At Cincinnati we’re very fortunate. We had no problem- No matter what problems we might’ve had in keeper force or unions, nobody could ever say we were cruel to our, and as I stated earlier, the collection was always paramount in my- We took care of our collection before and… Read More
Although, I must say in LA, there were a lot of concerned keepers. I had a marvelous keeper staff in LA. I really enjoyed working there. That was an entirely different experience in my lifetime. It was working for a public institution that had society support. The problem was the… Read More
You’d think she was on Broadway. Her eyes would roll back in her head and she would be going through all these problems. So we had to address them. And there were times I dug in my heels and what they were asking was ridiculous, so they would walk around… Read More
During your career, what do you consider to be some of the major events that affected zoos in general and obviously affected Cincinnati?… Read More
When I started in the business, I guess I can almost say I lived through the golden era of zoos. The AZA was a small organization. The AZAP was a small organization of zoo directors and a few staff people, and we would get around and talk about animal problems… Read More
The complexity of zoos today, I think, has really changed dramatically partially because of, of the times. The fact that today we’re losing our wildlife. Zoos were, for a while, were threatened by animal rights organizations that they weren’t pulling their weight. They should be doing more than just keeping… Read More
Did you have to deal with animal rights groups in Cincinnati?… Read More
When I first started, they didn’t think very much of visitors. Visitors were kind of a drag. They would dirty up the grounds and they were a necessary evil. And I was able to over a period of time to convince them that, particularly the junior staff, that because of… Read More
They’ve increased that since, but it was a county wide levy and that had helped the zoo tremendously and taking the edge off of worrying about people at the gate. And, you know, I remember as an example, a zoo director, when you depend on only gate, we had a… Read More
My first major exhibit, the first major exhibit I developed at the zoo was a flight cage, a free flight for birds of prey, bird of prey flight cage. It was 70 feet tall, 60 feet wide, and 160 feet long. It was built on a hillside. And eventually that… Read More