The cars, both cars, they said, were filled with rattlesnakes. Okay, so what can you do? Well, we… Found three rooms that were snake proof, and we just started, well, I mean, they brought them to the zoo. And we’d open up a box, or these sacks and all that. Read More
Where they were taking them was to Washington DC, and they were gonna turn them loose on the mall. I think they were anti-Vietnamese war. They may have been anti-somebody else, but that was the plan. Change pace just a bit. I within talk a little about crypto zoology, and… Read More
Department of Agriculture had their area on importation and all that. Department of Interior had the Endangered Species Act, but they also had a Humane Animal Act. And I don’t remember the details except, it was very, if you really had evidence, it was good. And I got the local… Read More
And every weekend there’s a rattlesnake roundup somewhere. Okay, so we got several of them stopped, and made a lot of enemies, of course, in the process, including the local, the Jaycees in Oklahoma City. I never could get them on board. I finally got them to not oppose it. Read More
Remember they kind of made, was putting sues, they had some law, humane laws on, on federal offenses, which may have been involved the zoo?… Read More
We never got it stopped, but we managed to slow it down a bit. This is an activity sponsored by the Jaycees. You know who they are? The Junior Chamber of Commerce. The Jaycees, are the big deals in any little town in Oklahoma. I mean, that’s the organization. And… Read More
There were a lot of demonstrations going on in Washington, DC at that time, the Vietnam War. I got the game, the Federal Department of Interior guy who…… Read More
Oh yeah, I’ve forgotten all about this. Read More
So you never got it stopped?… Read More
Well, we didn’t get it done. I didn’t. How did I get involved? They’re cruel. They go out and catch those rattlesnakes. They put gasoline into the boroughs. They hook it up, hoses up to exhaust systems. And what they don’t kill, they catch and bring in and, terrible! I… Read More
How’d you get involved in the stopping of the rattlesnake hunts?… Read More
We had to kick a few of them out. And that’s another thing, individual animals, and behavior and all, you have to watch for that. You can’t draw conclusions from just four or five animals. You may need to try 25 animals on a certain diet, or on something or… Read More
What was your first big development at Oklahoma City Zoo?… Read More
The condor, what we called the Condor Cliffs and Patagonian Panorama. It was temperate, South American animals. We had maned wolves. These were, they were not, the big exhibit was condors, but we had a gillions of birds in there. We had lizards, we had iguanas in there. We had…… Read More
I mean, it was a little risky mixing animal species. And we did it, if it looked like it would work, if it seemed like it would work, we’d try it. And then we’d watch them like hell, and if it didn’t work, get them the hell out of there. Read More
And he was all, had all kinds of bad qualities. And I fired him. And he had a chance to go up above to whatever you call it. Appeal. Appeal, and he went to city council. They have to listen to whoever’s there. And that was not helpful. And a… Read More
And just firing that one guy had that effect with several people who were not, they were kind of… I think they were worried about the trust coming, not having, I mean, they wouldn’t have a job at the zoo anymore, but they would have a job. And they wanted… Read More
Teamsters! Yeah. One, was the teamsters, the other was the public service restaurants, and all that that they were in. And I’m happy to tell you that when we became the trust, every employee in the zoo had the opportunity, one, stay with the city. The city guaranteed them a… Read More
So they had a choice there. They could stay with the city in some new job, or they could come with us, or they could quit. But they’d have a job either way. Both of those unions voted to what’s called de… There’s a word for it, when you get… Read More
They really were forced into it before, and now they didn’t have to be. And we had built up, and I’m proud of this, and I don’t think I’m tooting my own horn. But we had developed enough confidence of zoo employees in their jobs and in the management that… Read More