Or is it you don’t like the person and so you try to make up what the issue may be and justify disciplinary action. So when it comes to that, I ask the manager to develop a lot of questions about that and be able to answer that. Read More
But is it a case of not being educated, not being trained properly?… Read More
Did we give everybody the tools?… Read More
And B, if it’s a medical condition, is this resolvable or not?… Read More
Manatees are a classic case. The keepers can make that call now and they do. Animal comes in, being rescued, it’s like that animal’s not gonna make it because they’ve had 500 cases to look at and they know what’s going to happen. There’s no real big decision there anymore. Read More
When it comes to personnel, I have a very short fuse when it comes to people who repeatedly make the same mistake. That’s not rocket science. Most managers would say that. Read More
Am I consulting with the head veterinarian?… Read More
Absolutely. Read More
But it’s like, let’s, A, get to the natural history of the animal, determine, is this the best way this animal’s gonna live for the rest of its life?… Read More
Now, am I consulting with the CEO?… Read More
Absolutely. Read More
Vets are going, he’s not recovering, okay?… Read More
He has renal failure. So we played this out and I said, we have got to make a decision. This is not fair to this animal. Let’s make a decision. So every time we got to making a decision, the animal’s having a great day. And we stopped talking about… Read More
We validated it for weeks. It’s time to put the animal down. Very emotional for the keepers. But they finally got it, and that’s when I said to ’em, I will make that final decision. Read More
Tomorrow, and he’s up on the, you know, walking around having a great time. Oh, can’t do him. Look, he’s recovered. Read More
That’s been a struggle with some staff who want time to think about it. I said okay, you can have time, but we’re gonna make a decision here. And when it comes to those kinds of decisions, I was very firm in saying, I will have the last say. So… Read More
Yeah, some, well, kind of two, if it came to animal or personnel. On the animal side, there’s a tendency for us as humans to wanna over manage all animal management facets. We get crazy with it, I think. We forget the animal’s biology and you know, we jump ahead… Read More
But we did it, turned out well. Landscape is one of my other passions. You wouldn’t have to pay me to do landscape, but I oversee the landscape design for the zoo and I took that on because the CEO was extremely frustrated with the look of the zoo when… Read More
I’m not trained in landscape, but I’ve done many homes and I know what I like when I see it. And I spend some of my vacation time looking at botanical gardens and things like that. So I have a pretty good feel for plants. And the zoo has a… Read More
What was your management style for dealing with negative issues?… Read More