Well, we did, there were only, as I say, there were only 12 of us that had full time paid jobs. And then there were a lot of guys that were on call. Basically, basically we had a, one of the, one of the guys had a mimeograph machine. And… Read More
Staff veterinarian. You were the staff veterinarian for the Columbus Zoo. There, as you mentioned, not many veterinarians in the United States doing that job. Read More
What were some of the things that in the beginning, as a veterinarian, you had to deal with?… Read More
Well, I mean, you know, the problem that we had in those days, still do some degree have today, but (muttering), the level, you know, the depth and level of our, of our ignorance of the things that we didn’t know was, was incredible. It was pretty profound. Walked into… Read More
And, you know, there are a lot of animals you can’t use, you know, you can’t use barbiturates on any of the, of the big cats because they, you know, they’ll sleep for two weeks. And then Sernylan, phencyclidine came along as an experimental drug just as I got to… Read More
You know, what’s your, what’s your philosophy?… Read More
I said, my politics, all the, all the, all the things that I developed about not liking Columbus kicked in. I just kinda got up on my soap box and said, well, my politics are personal. That I don’t think politics and politicians have any place in the zoo unless… Read More
It was home free until I talked to the, to the guys, the real power behind the scenes and told them that I hated politicians (chuckling) and it was over. (chuckling) And if you think about it, it was probably the greatest thing that ever happened to me. If I’d… Read More
Well, I walked away with a profound dislike. I don’t want to say hatred, but it might’ve been, for politics and politicians and bureaucracy. And I think that’s pretty much stuck with me. So yet to this day, because I mean the big, you know, the amount of energy that’s… Read More
It was kind of a perfect match. Went in, interviewed pretty much had the job bolted down. In fact, there’s the president of the society was already made arrangements for the moving company to come get our furniture and the whole bit. And at the end of the day, there… Read More
And I said, what do you mean?… Read More
And she said, well, tell us about your political affiliations and your, you know, and your politics. Read More
And so you got, you got a wide experience. At one time, I was mammals curator, staff veterinarian, assistant director, and acting curator of the aquarium all at the same time, because Columbus was kind of in turmoil in those days. Great experience. Great, great, great experience because you got… Read More
And we had the largest collection of poisonous snakes in the world there. Only about 10% of it on display. We had a huge collection. And because of the fact that I’d started out as a herpetologist and because I knew Bob Jenny and all of that, I think I… Read More
You, you know, you had the tools to do, survive just about anywhere. And because I had a professional appointment, the politicians, you know, couldn’t touch me. They made everybody else crazy, but I was kind of a bulletproof. You mentioned you learned some things. Read More
What lessons did you walk away with from there?… Read More
What kind of zoo did you find?… Read More
Well, it was, it was basically a, what you would expect is a typical, well, I say not typical. It was, it was actually, for its time, was a pretty good zoo and that, they had, you know, they had a good cat collection. They had, and they had, you… Read More
No, he, yeah. He hired me as, he hired me as mammals curator and Columbus was in turmoil in those days. It was very, very political. Steve, you know, the reason I made the move up was that Steve got fired, and it was a very political place, political zoo. Read More
They couldn’t do anything with me. Read More