Interview 30880 – Caption Index: 118
So it was, animal welfare was priority, public safety. So those are my initial changes that I started that was starting to guide my, my decision making. Read More
So it was, animal welfare was priority, public safety. So those are my initial changes that I started that was starting to guide my, my decision making. Read More
It’s just like, it wasn’t right. There was a thing called the step in and playpens the step in and Playpens basically were a box size of a couple dining room tables with step with seats all the way around it. Flat seats. And they had Guinea pigs running in… Read More
Then when you turned on the drinking fountain, you could theoretically be sucking up swan fecal. I said I knew what my priorities had to be to start making improvements at the zoo. And the zoo board had just had a fundraiser and had some funds set aside for capital… Read More
No shelter in Lincoln, Nebraska, no roof over their head. I said, I went, I need to establish some sheltering for these llamas and these animals. And I gave them my list. They approved it and we started making our improvements there. And we had, we were housing, imagine an… Read More
He said, John, this should guide you. Public welfare and safety is number one. Staff safety and welfare is number two. Animal safety and welfare is number three. So when I get there and I walk around the zoo and the zoo’s literally crawling with rats in the daytime. Rats… Read More
What did you want to accomplish? First I wanted to and, and improve the facility. Look at the animal welfare. And, but I asked the board chair who signed the letter, an offer and who basically hired me, Bob Nevsky, may rest in peace, a wonderful person. Read More
Okay, I’m your zoo director. What’s your expectations?… Read More
I said, Bob, what are my instructions?… Read More
It gets cold in Lincoln, Nebraska. So yeah, it, the animal has been really, is pretty rough when I walked in. Read More
And as a new zoo director, what were your priorities?… Read More
Okay. Hodgepodge, not a lot of thought to it. Seasonal zoo, I mean, literally it closed. Zoo Zoo was built originally to open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. And then after that, the zoo moved all its animals out there was from Labor Day to Memorial Day. Basically there… Read More
Okay. Summer cottage, bare bones, maybe a light bulb or two very little, no running water to speak of just a rough little cottage. That’s basically how the Lincoln Children’s Zoo was built because it was not gonna house animals on a year round basis. So imagine moving into a… Read More
It was a zoo job. I really wanted a private zoo. Not a municipal zoo. ’cause I had had my fail of being a politician my 10 years at a municipal zoo. And when you’re at a municipal zoo, politics rears his ugly head so many times in your decision… Read More
Never met him. Okay. I had met him previously when I was the director. When we had, I had met him in Miami at a national, A-Z-A-A-A-Z-P-A conference. I had met him, we’d had gone dinner together, but that was the only time I ever met the man. Read More
So in this instance, what type of zoo did you find?… Read More
And did he give you any advice or you never met him?… Read More
He was, he, he I think spent like 13 years there. Read More
Well, my good friend Earl Wells was the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo. He was also a zoo consultant. And he was consulting with the zoo. The Lincoln Children’s Zoo back then in 1986, was known as the Folsom Children’s Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Okay. It was incorporated originally in 1965… Read More
I said, you know, it was political reasons why I lost my, I left my previous zoo and they said most of the applicants left for political reasons. It was kind of hot right then. And so that my predecessor left in February and I started in April. That they,… Read More
Well, Earl was consulting with the zoo at that time to upgrade it and remodel it. And the zoo director left at that time in February of 86. And Earl said, here, write, write a letter to this lady. So I wrote a letter to that lady and the lady… Read More