Interview 20028 – Caption Index: 192
And who, when you left the presidency for the first time, who was the next president?… Read More
And who, when you left the presidency for the first time, who was the next president?… Read More
Charlie Hessel. Read More
The association was growing by leaps and bounds. The professional staff, the association’s professional staff was growing. But we were mired in Wheeling, West Virginia. That was the historical home of the AZA. And that had to do simply with where the, and I may say it wrong, the National… Read More
So there was a lot of discussion about moving the office, which was, had full support of the board, but not support of the senior executive staff, all of whom were entrenched in Wheeling, West Virginia. And I was sworn in as vice president the year that Ron Forman was… Read More
Not Silver Spring, one of the other suburbs of Washington. “Just want to let you know I bought a building.” “Hello? (laughs) What? You did what?” “I bought a building.” “You bought a building.” “Yes, I took several hundred thousand dollars that the AZA had. I bought a building.” “Who… Read More
The Wildlife Conservation and Management Committee. That name has since changed. I’m not even sure what it’s called to this day, but it was the first effort on- It was a recognition and effort by the AZA that if we did not manage the animals scientifically within our collections, we… Read More
Zoo ARKS, I’m not sure what the name is. Clearly it could no longer be called ISIS after what happened in the Middle East. That was not in AZA. That was a totally independent international nonprofit. That was a very real learning experience for all of us because of the… Read More
And what revelations opened your eyes when you were now the president of the association?… Read More
There was a lot going on that first time, and not just the year that I served as president, but the terms that I served on the board. I remember taking a vote, raising my hand to form the WCMC. Read More
Which is?… Read More
I like to think I was a big proponent always of animal welfare. I always tried to put the welfare of the animals first. You had a… As your tenure at the zoo, you had a profession, you had a professional staff. Yes, yes. Read More
And how important was professional growth for your staff to you?… Read More
I actively encouraged our animal staff, from curators down to keepers, to become involved in the AZA, studbook keepers, TAG chairs, TAG committees. I just felt it was very important for them, for the zoo, for our place within this profession, the professional association. And they all prospered from that. Read More
They looked at states that had no marine mammal exhibits, aquariums, whatever and that had weak, dare I say easily influenced state legislatures, and they picked South Carolina. So they got a bill introduced into the state legislature that to ban the exhibition of marine mammals in South Carolina. When… Read More
HSUS brought in their experts, and lo and behold, it passed. So to this day, (laughs) you can’t exhibit marine mammals in South Carolina, which was kind of interesting when the last thing I built was a $17 million sea lion exhibit. And I had to go back and work… Read More
So let’s say the mayor said, “I want to paint the elephants purple.” He only had two votes on the Zoo Commission, so that would never happen. So when they, it took them a while to realize. It took, when I say they, when somebody got elected to one of… Read More
Now during your time, your extended time of 43 years at the zoo at the helm, what was your relationship to animal rights groups and humane society groups over the years, and develop a philosophy about dealing with them and… I can summarize that in two words. The South. (laughs)… Read More
You know, I don’t think there was ever. Never say never. I’m not aware of a PETA chapter in South Carolina. We had a very weak HSUS. I thought we had a very weak HSUS presence, but I learned the hard way that we didn’t. I don’t know what year… Read More
We had a huge anti-property tax movement. I think it swept the whole country, started in California. And those people who were elected, they had a group called We the People. They ran a lot of people for local office, and a lot of them got elected on the platform… Read More
There were other, you know, nonprofits and other agencies within the Midlands, we call the middle of South Carolina the Midlands, who were having to teach these people that, you know, when you call 911 and you need an ambulance, it’s gotta show up, you know. And so they were… Read More