They were a profession. Zookeepers was a great profession. Be proud of your work, be proud of what you’re doing. And that was really challenging in a city zoo. Very challenging. I had an argument with finance people down in the city, the finance department of the city, because we… Read More
“No, no, no, you have to see my union.” So I get a call from the union that afternoon, “What’s going on?… Read More
Tom’s all upset, he wants to see us.” And I’m like, I caught him napping. Blanket, pillow, the whole nine yards. Read More
I mean, in these days you take a picture, right?… Read More
When do we do nap time?… Read More
And so I go into the backup area, two o’clock in the afternoon, I go in the backup area of our hood stop building, and the keeper’s there, and he’s on top of the hay bales with a blanket and a pillow, and sound asleep. (clears throat) So I clear… Read More
He’s like, “Well, I’ve always done nap time. This is nap time. You can’t tell me I can’t do nap time.” I’m like, I don’t know. I mean, I got this card here, it says “zoo director,” I think I can tell you. Read More
So I’ve got keys to everything, ’cause I’m the director, I ought to have keys to everything, right?… Read More
1990. And I go, and I’ve got keys to everything. I demanded to have keys to everything. Read More
Well, I think that’s always evolving. I made a lot of mistakes when I first started, as all everybody does. It was my first experience in a union zoo, so really managing a union zoo and working with a union zoo. So I had to learn about that. Had to… Read More
So we had a great relationship with the union at the zoo. I had a lot of fun with those folks. We worked very well together. And so I think that was a learning experience to learn about that. The projects I had to work on most when I first… Read More
I’m there the first six months, right?… Read More
And we had an older hoofstock area that was just chain link and mud, and so we really needed to work on that alone. So there was a whole lot of things going on. And then additionally, the previous administration, back in 1975, not Chuck Wickenhausuer or any of that… Read More
So as you’re looking at all this, are you able to start, or you have formed philosophies as to the management of the zoo, and what prompted that?… Read More
And privatization is a trend now, but it wasn’t a trend at that time. And so the people involved at that time in the city had severely upset the foundations. So there was no money coming into the zoo. The foundations would not fund the zoo, ’cause they were still… Read More
So we were working with five endangered species. So one of the things I wanted to put a focus on, obviously, is growing the animals that needed our care the most, the endangered species, especially in the zoo. So that needed work. Also, the facilities needed work, the children, my… Read More
But anyway, and the children’s zoo needed work. It was outdated and very much needed work. And right in the middle of the children’s zoo was a Japanese Macaque exhibit. And, much to my horror as a veterinarian, I found out the second or third day after I started work… Read More
So that was very difficult. The programs there needed a lot of growth, we didn’t have a single full-time employee who did education. We had one person, Margie Marks, beautiful lady, wonderful person. Margie Marks, talk about dedicated, works more hours than anybody. But anyway, she did marketing, PR, special… Read More
And it had been level, dead flat, 450,000 for 10 years. Despite the fact that they had opened new exhibits, they had opened beautiful new exhibits, they had opened new areas, they had things that were going on that were very positive for people to see. And yet their attendance… Read More
I messed everything up. But everybody did everything. We parked cars, we did special events, we did anything and everything that needed to happen at the zoo because we were so short staffed. In addition, we were not focused, we didn’t have a real focus in the animal collection. There… Read More