So I went to the Philippine, the Manila Zoo. I had had a letter from the director of the zoo. He wanted a job. And so I met with him. I said, “Well, why do you wanna leave this zoo?” “We haven’t been paid in six months.” So I needed… Read More
And they all speak excellent English. So the deal was that they would, the next day, I hired a couple, that did have experience, convinced me that they knew something about it. Then the next day I was gonna hire a reptile keeper. So we posted that. The next day… Read More
I don’t think I have. Things like that. I was able to say, “Well this is really, you know, this is a muskrat. Or this is, this is that animal,” and all that, without going into too much perjury. And we also got some animal names withdrawn ’cause we just… Read More
No, they had a list that the alcoholic, the one who spent the time in Miami. The night they submitted their contract, their bid for this contract, he was making a list of the animals. And he had a book on animals of the world, or something. We got it… Read More
Well- You have the final say?… Read More
And muskrats, have you seen a muskrat in an American zoo?… Read More
And I said, “Now, each one of them is gonna, has a armband. If there’s any complaints, I insist that you give me the number. And we will bring him in, he or she, and we will take solve the problem.” Well, the complaints dwindled quite a bit, quite a… Read More
How did you acquire these animals?… Read More
And I’ve got a picture, it’s still in Riyadh of him. He and I going through the gate, and all. It was interesting. And before he came, two guys came in with like torches, except they were burning incense. And they stayed together and they went everywhere in the zoo… Read More
And the mutawa obviously saw, they reported me to the head mutawa, that the American Zoo director was going over to take pictures of ladies on ladies day walking through the zoo, and that’s not permitted. Read More
My bosses said, “You didn’t show us those pictures. We wanna see them too.” I didn’t do it. You know, I’m innocent. So things like that. The concessions guys, we got so many complaints from the mutawa. Well, they said, “This one pinched her, and this one leered at her,”… Read More
Well, how do you know I was gonna take pictures of a lady?… Read More
“Well, the fathers will bring the children and all.” But that’s not, I mean, you know, here I am telling them how to run their country. But I said, “You know, really this is zoo can be a great family thing.” Well, we went down and talked to the mayor,… Read More
And let’s see, three then, and one day for ladies and one day for men. And I’ve forgotten what the rest of it was. But we were warned. It had to be, you know, we had… We had male all of our purveyors for the public services, they were all… Read More
So I learned about things like that. And the family days lasted about 30 days. And there were so many complaints from the mutawa. We had a pygmy hippo born about that time. And I’d forgotten where I’d gotten that one from. No, this was later, now that I think… Read More
They are everywhere. And depending on the politics of the moment, they can be very powerful, or they can be powerless. I was told that the cave was gonna be dark. And if men and women went in there together, terrible things might happen. So don’t open it. Okay, so… Read More
But I don’t understand this, three days for men?… Read More
When do families go?… Read More
And so we built a huge evaporative cooler, you know, like a swamp box, what they used to call?… Read More
We did a lot of changes. And oh, one big thing, there was a cave building, cave exhibits. And I went in there and there’s nothing had been done in there. The exhibits were bare, but that’s what it was. And I said, “Are we not gonna finish this?” “No,… Read More