Much to do about nothing. Absolutely nothing. Actually many zoos had dogs in their behind the scenes, in their animal areas. We actually copied Houston Zoo that had dogs. Charlie Gray up in Canada, one of the absolute best, not one of, the best breeder of Asian elephants, caretaker of… Read More
We tried very much to get people to understand, please don’t put us in this position. Please don’t make us leave. Please don’t push us out. But we just got no, no, no, with no compromise the whole way. You said, “Sometimes we did some things right, we did some… Read More
How did that come about?… Read More
I did not feel that that was, we did not feel, the whole team did not feel that that was a function of AZA as a membership organization. Now we were wrong, ’cause AZA was no longer a membership organization. It was a regulatory agency. But we felt it should… Read More
So we had a disagreement on that. But it wasn’t just Pittsburgh. We had 12 different zoos who signed a letter to the board of directors of AZA, asking them not to make some of the decisions they were making at that time. Demanding zoos, requiring zoos, mandating, really, that’s… Read More
Brookfield Zoo was on that list of people, directors who signed. And then we met with the board directors at the national conference, directors, at the director’s retreat. We met with them and we tried to explain how this was not their role. This was not what this organization was… Read More
Elephants were the tipping point, without a doubt. Elephants were the tipping point for us leaving AZA, sadly. But what really was the main philosophical difference that we disagreed on, was that I did not feel that a membership organization, which is what AZA is supposed to be, a membership… Read More
So how is it that a board of directors, some who have never been to the zoo, can tell us how to manage our animals on a day-to-day basis?… Read More
What benefit did we get from that?… Read More
And we didn’t get a lot of benefit from it, quite honestly. We felt more like we got called to the carpet than we did getting membership provided to us. So it changed. AZA sadly changed, in my humble opinion. It’s just my humble opinion. Now, recognize, AZA is a… Read More
It was not a decision that we made lightly. And we also worked very hard not to have to leave. So we worked the board of AZA, we worked with the staff of AZA, and we worked very hard to try not to be put in the position, the awkward… Read More
And then over time, they grow to where they become more of a, well, we’re gonna add an accreditation program, we’re gonna add an accreditation aspect of it, right?… Read More
And so they add this accreditation aspect, along with all the other aspects of the great things that AZA is doing. A lot of great people in AZA. And so all these great programs are going on. And then unfortunately, gradually, like a lot of organizations, they became more of… Read More
Very. That was a very difficult decision. I’d been involved in AZA, as I mentioned, all the way back when I started at Riverbanks. Got very involved. I spent 12 years on the accreditation commission of AZA. I had AZA studbook, I was studbook keeper. I had drank the Kool-Aid. Read More
Had no idea there were other zoo organizations out there. So I was a big fan. We had gone through, I took the Pittsburgh Zoo through five AZA accreditations, and we passed with flying colors. And so I’d been very involved with the AZA. Unfortunately AZA, like a lot of… Read More
We never have. And she asked a multitude of questions like that, that indicated that she had absolutely no clue, or had any experience with elephants. And yet she was on the news at night telling people how horrible our elephants were. Interestingly enough, what amazed me, or disappointed me,… Read More
And they wouldn’t go. That wasn’t their purpose of being there. Their purpose of being there was to try to get me to admit that we had done something wrong and not tried our absolute best. Well, when you speak about that kind of challenge, when you first started zoo,… Read More
How difficult was that decision?… Read More
Hand raising elephants is very, very hard, even for the people in Africa who we consulted with every single day. Very, very hard. And so we lost this baby elephant, who was premature, and we actually learned, premature, low body weight, and we actually learned later on, through the pathology,… Read More
No animal experience, right?… Read More