Interview 20952 – Caption Index: 268
There’s this wild animals, but who cares?… Read More
There’s this wild animals, but who cares?… Read More
So it’s really trying to get them to say, “Okay, I understand this animal. I respect it. I have a certain place for it.” So in Singapore, like for instance, people leave the zoo and they may see a presentation of orangutans, but it’s certainly not a degrading presentation. And… Read More
Can you talk to me about why you feel respect is so important?… Read More
Yeah, I think… And it is like people ask me and they say, “Well, you say you are pro-animal show. You say you have no problem with having breakfast with an orangutan. Isn’t that disrespectful to the animal?” And I said, “No, I don’t think so.” As long as long… Read More
Because what’s the purpose of a zoo?… Read More
I think the biggest problem with shutting zoos is that if you’re shut down a zoo, unless the legislation in the country is so strong, another one just as bad will open up tomorrow because it’s just how do you commercialize a set of animals?… Read More
Until the legislation is such that you have to go into a… If you’re gonna run a zoo, then you have to adhere to certain ethical and moral standards. Otherwise you shouldn’t be operating, very difficult though. Read More
What did you mean when you said zoos have a huge ethical and moral cross to bear?… Read More
Well, I think it stems from that really, from what I was just saying about the shutting down zoos. I mean, ethics is like what they should be doing. So zoos have ethical standards or at least associations have ethical standards. AZA have ethical standards, WAZA have ethical standards, which… Read More
So they should be shut down. Read More
But I think that some zoos are great. I would say zoos like Zurich, the Bronx, many American zoos, many European zoos, many Australian zoos, some zoos in Asia, Singapore definitely are great zoos. And they should be lauded for their achievements. But for most of them, I think they… Read More
But I think slowly, we should work at the… The zoo world should work at shutting down bad zoos, but it’ll never happen. Read More
You said, “I am becoming one of the zoo’s world’s greatest critics. Read More
I sincerely believe that 90% of all zoos in the world should be shut down.” You meant?… Read More
Yeah. Well, I think probably I took a little bit of… I’ve had a little bit of David Hancock’s rub off on me, and he’s sort of like a… I would say he’s a mentor and David is a very, very abrasive critic of zoos. But as over the years,… Read More
And how are you getting on?… Read More
How is it doing?… Read More
Well, I think it’s very important for the director to find out what’s going on the ground. And I think a lot of directors nowadays don’t do that. I think it’s a very German thing where the German zoo director would always do a round. If it’s not a daily… Read More
Is it just a sort of a this is what I want you to maintain and this is my stand?… Read More
That’s why I will always pick up a piece of litter in front of a staff member because it drives home the message that if he can do it, then I should do it as well. So I think that’s just something which I think is being lost in a… Read More