Well, I think curators today, like I said, no. Remember I’ve been actively out of the zoo profession for 21 years, but I’m still associated with it. I mean, I still wanna keep up with it, but I think curators today all seem to have the academic training. They’ve all… Read More
But why don’t some people come to the zoo?… Read More
I remember, when I first came to Topeka in 1963, people would come out to Gage Park into the zoo to see the animals, to be in a semi-natural setting. By that, I mean, we have a lot of shade trees and it’s very pleasant in landscape grounds. Over time,… Read More
Nothing replaces a living, breathing creature. Read More
But I wonder why aren’t we reaching some of these people?… Read More
This whole country seems to be so divisive on everything. I hate to see that happen to zoos. I think we need that to have more of a level head about this, because we’re always gonna have detractors and people who don’t believe in zoos. There’s some people who don’t… Read More
And I don’t agree with them either, but I respect their situation. (chuckles) You mentioned that you would ask the question, why aren’t people coming to, can you follow up on that?… Read More
Why were you asking that question?… Read More
What did you wanna try and get to?… Read More
Well, what it’s getting to is, zoos, yes, you will hear for recreation, education, conservation, research or scientific studies, but I’ve always thought this, we need to broaden that. The zoo needs to be community service, a community resource. And I know not everybody loves animals, but if we could… Read More
In fact, when we would evaluate our success at the zoo, and we’d say how many people are coming, and so on, I would always ask the question, who’s not coming?… Read More
Who in this community is not coming to the zoo and why?… Read More
Why are we not serving them?… Read More
I’m sorry, I got a little off the subject there, but the animal activist situation, it’s a very emotional thing. And if you’re passionate about zoos and animals in zoos, it’s so easy to get agitated with these people. But my thought has always been, first of all, they have… Read More
For example, Topeka is a small committee, 120,000, city limits 160,000 metro area, but we’re the state capital. So as the state capital, I feel we maybe have more of a responsibility to have a broader collection, a more generalized collection. You take a smaller zoo, like Emporia, which is… Read More
Can you give us your thoughts on how best to deal with these type of groups?… Read More
Animal activists are certainly a presence and critics of zoos are certainly a presence. Read More
Well, there’s been a lot of discussion as to what type of collections zoos should have. And it’s a good question to consider smaller institutions and financial resources, and so on, and whether or not it’s indigenous animals or specialize in endangered species or general collection. There certainly are examples. Read More
I think it’s more, what’s the role of that zoo in the community?… Read More
What is the status of the community?… Read More