So that was part of it. The money wasn’t really an object. Disney could have gotten pandas. I’m sure Koalas were, I would argue that, you know, they don’t do much. It’s just the name and they look cute. I said, you know, I, I don’t think I, I don’t… Read More
Well, that was because I was better as a builder than an operator. I think for me, the, the excitement is hiring the people, finding the right animals, providing the right facilities, moving them in that you’re just, so this, that, that was what my experience was. I had moved… Read More
They, they originally hired me, said, Rick, you’re gonna help build it and then you’re gonna run it. And and Dieter was right that, that German guys, I was not prepared to run the operation side of a zoo. I could do it, but I I, there were better people… Read More
You have said it was better building than running it. Why?… Read More
But, but again, like I said before, they, they just thought all animals should be left in the wild and not knowing what was going on in the wild. Because, you know, they just thought, they just thought everything was the wild was a picnic. And, and zoos were a… Read More
You know, or something else. Everybody wanted to do it. But we were the exception to the rule because they were very sensitive that, hey, you know, these are live animals. We gotta tread carefully here. We can’t make mistakes because there’s a lot of people watching. And, you know,… Read More
And, and, and then that was, that was the foundation of the Disney Conservation Fund, which was very unusual because it was the only park where we were allowed to solicit donations for something other than Disney. And that was Judson Green. The head of the parks made that exception. Read More
If it’s just gonna become a cash cow and make money for Disney, it’s not gonna fly. People are questioning the motives too much. It’s gotta be, it’s gotta be something that is, has an impact that’s really beneficial to, to endangered species. So, so, so that was our first… Read More
We weren’t allowed to do, ’cause the other parks said, why, why can’t we do that for our charities?… Read More
Well, how, how, but how hard was it to sell your concept of a conservation fund to Disney?… Read More
They, they didn’t look at it like it was a good thing to do. It was just a net to them. It was a net to them. It was like, well, you know, I guess we gotta pay ’em in some way. I said, no, you’re not buying the gorillas. Read More
Although at the time, there was a family of gorillas, I think it was the Tarago Zoo in Sydney that they were selling and remember that. And, and they wanted a, a lot of money. But that was a backup. We could have taken them out of Australia, but we… Read More
And I, you know, it was a two-way street. It may have been your idea, but now, now I’m trying to remember, you know, that we would do something significant for you that would help gorillas in the wild. And because we all, in the end, we wanted to help… Read More
Well, it was the only species that we did this with. I mean, the others, a lot, most of the animals were free people just, you know, they, they, they, they were what we called surplus animals back then. So, but, but with we, I mean, we had to pay… Read More
When the zoo opened, when Animal Kingdom opened?… Read More
When was it implemented before there were animals?… Read More
Was this well received by your bosses?… Read More
He just passed away a few months ago. So as part of all of this, you had recommended this conservation fund that you wanted to do, although you had worked with Lincoln Park on this specific fund, but you wanted to have Disney have a conservation fund. Read More
If, if what what would incentivize Lincoln Park to, you know, consider doing something like this?… Read More
Because they could use the room too. But they, they didn’t need to do it. So then we just developed a conservation fund. And so we put this amount of money into a conservation fund, a significant amount of money. And, and in return, we got Gino and two females,… Read More