So that may be one thing that’s happening. But … And then they were, I was gonna stay, I guaranteed them I’d stay one year. They wanted me to sign on for three years, I think because of my experience with giant pandas, and they were gonna try to breed… Read More
But no, they were just happy to see me go. So …… Read More
In the internship programs that you’ve developed, what has made you the happiest, or that given you the most satisfaction in these internship programs?… Read More
And then basically after being there while I told the Director who was Chris West, Did you know Chris?… Read More
Yes. “Chris”, I said, basically you’ve got two things wrong here.” I said, “Number one, you’re a roadside zoo with giant pandas.” And so he told the board that I said that and he said, “I have to agree with Mitch.” He said, “We’re not doing …” They had big… Read More
Because?… Read More
Well, I … The situation was they had three veterinarians, three veterinarians there and they had a facility like Front Royal out at a place called Monarto, and a small zoo within the city. And I was there about five days, and I told the director, I said, “You didn’t… Read More
So pandas have kind of followed me around for my career. Read More
And what was that title?… Read More
What did you interview for?… Read More
I interviewed for a veterinarian that would be a staff veterinarian, no supervisory thing, just taking care of animals. It sounded great. I said, “Hey, don’t apologize for that.” I said, that would just kind of be my ideal thing to finish out, you know, some quote golden years, or… Read More
Not as much as when Rudy Rudran was there. There are some international students going through the George Mason University that are there, but we’re not having the big groups of people come in, like we’d had 20 or more people would come in, and stay for several months, and… Read More
You’ve been working with the Adelaide Zoo also?… Read More
Yeah, after I got back from three years in Thailand, I got bored again doing yard work and things, and so somebody mentioned that there was a job open at the Adelaide Zoo, so I applied and sent ’em my CV, and they called and interviewed me over the phone,… Read More
And then some of the breeding, the captive breeding that we’d done on some of the species, and one of the senators of that out in Virginia called Small into his office and said, had asked him some very specific questions, like I guess senators do, “How much money are… Read More
What did you know …” this asking him to have the specifics, which he didn’t have, you know, he just made the decision that he was gonna save money, so he was gonna close Front Royal, so then basically after, I guess, several months of hand ringing and you know,… Read More
Does it still have that international flavor where they’re bringing people from other countries in?… Read More
Well basically hippo’s an aquatic animal. So you have the problem of them if they go in water, or if you dart ’em with a drug that causes ’em not to breathe, they drowned. So some of the early work where they used M99, or some of the narcotics, they… Read More
What brought that about, and that you’re aware of, and you think that would’ve been a good or a bad move to have done it?… Read More
Well, that was during the tenure of Small, who was the Secretary of the Smithsonian, and he was a former CEO I believe of Fannie Mae or one of the big corporations, and he was used to, you know, not having to, I guess justify many of his decisions, and… Read More