So they didn’t care, they were fine. They said no, we’ll do this. We’re not worried about it. Lufthansa had to turn it down. South African Air had to turn it down because of pressure from animal rights community. So flew these animals in, again, crated them up. The king… Read More
And he really put everybody through their paces, our attorneys as well as the animal rights group. And he made his decision, and he turned to our attorneys, and said get your elephants in now. And we’re like, yikes. So we surveyed five transportation or five airlines. Everybody wanted it. Read More
And he said well, between 250 and $400,000. So the board chairman said it’ll be 400,000, let’s call our attorney in Washington. And sure enough, he came in at $400,000, but they were actually suing Fish and Wildlife. But we had to be there to make sure that our interests… Read More
And our two vets, each institution sent a vet along. I was there, Randy was there, and Lowry Park sent a couple of staff. And we did reproductive exams on all the elephants to make sure they were viable. And then we basically divided up the elephants and said okay,… Read More
And the next question went to the attorney, how much is this gonna cost us in federal court?… Read More
So here we have animals captured and the stop button was hit. And that brought in not only all existing trustees, but trustee emeriti showed up, the room was full. And we were sitting on the edge watching all this. And the first trustee stood up, not the chairman, but… Read More
What were the challenges, what were the issues?… Read More
And at that time, Lowry Parks facility and the comment from the emissary is, your elephants live in better conditions than some of my people. So the answer back to the king of Swaziland was, yes, we should go forward with it. So again, making a long story short, the… Read More
Right, we were asked by our board what was the most significant animal in our collection that we needed to work on. And Jim and I did a presentation to the board and said it was elephants, it was African elephants. And so the short answer to that story is… Read More
Can you tell us about the importation of the elephants from Swaziland?… Read More
Is this a species we just need to leave in the wild and forget about it. But we have learned a lot and we’ve done a lot on the science side with elephants and this virus that they can contract is all been because they’ve been in managed populations. And… Read More
I mean, this is how devastating that was. And said give us an opportunity to come back with a better management philosophy and style. And they did. And that’s operant conditioning with a lot in between what I just said from the beginning to end of that. But that death,… Read More
And the focus that we were told by the board, the board had the final decision, are we getting out of elephants or not?… Read More
It’s like, should we even be doing this?… Read More
Can you talk about safety with elephants?… Read More
Yeah, the death at the wild animal park was, I don’t know how else to put it other than it brings you to your core and the keeper didn’t do anything wrong. The keeper actually wasn’t doing anything wrong, was just in the wrong place. And when two 10,000-pound elephants… Read More
I think for the most part they should. I don’t know if every exhibit, you know, should have to do that. I think we’ve got to make sure that we’re messaging and doing what we should with the public to make sure that they understand why we’re investing the money,… Read More
Just let them be animals. Some of the veterinarians I’ve worked with, I appreciate a great deal when it comes to their approach to a medical evaluation. And the ones I like are the old-school vets who go, let’s give this a day or two before we jump in there. Read More
Okay?… Read More
Should all newly constructed exhibits incorporate some conservation conclusion?… Read More