People are gonna care about animals and be involved in animals, even if they have a career in finance. They’re going to find a way to be involved in animals and be interested in animals, if you can set that stage early on. But visitor amenities put ’em in the… Read More
You mean zoo people?… Read More
Not nowadays, I don’t think so. Back, as I said, back in the days when I first started, it was all about the animals, and the public was an afterthought. And it became so important as we looked at trying to market, do PR, get people back into the zoos,… Read More
Every time I did accreditation inspections, I’d have a hot dog at the snack bar. Just wander off, get a hot dog at the snack bar and see what quality it was. Because when I first started at Pittsburgh, our hot dogs, in the center, were green. They were not… Read More
How important are amenities at a zoo?… Read More
Do you think people think of them enough?… Read More
Well, where’s that merit in that?… Read More
So you had to kind of be very creative about ways to motivate and get people excited, until we were successful in privatizing the zoo, which we did in ’93, ’94. Well, you talked about the trying to get to the public. Read More
So I got on all the talk shows, I got on all, yeah, we tried to get the zoo out there every possible way we could think of. And so we wanted to, I would be on every talk show, every, we had a nighttime zoo program that we did… Read More
So we could have a great year, we could make a bunch of money, we could actually have a surplus. And it went into the general fund. And I’d sit before city council and beg for another keeper position, and they’d say no. And I’m like, but wait a minute. Read More
I’m trying to feed the animals. And so it was a real struggle to try to motivate employees. When you can’t, they’re unionized, so you can’t give ’em a raise, can’t give ’em a bonus. If you do give ’em a bonus, you gotta give everybody a bonus. Read More
And he’s like, well he’s old, blah blah, blah. I’m like, there is nothing in the union rules that says he can take a nap at two o’clock in the afternoon. And he’s like, well he swears he got all his work done. I’m like, I don’t care. I’m paying… Read More
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
I mean, I can talk, right?… 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
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
When do we do nap time?… 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