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
Why do you think they’re beneficial for senior staff?… Read More
Well, as I was just describing earlier, I think the purpose of a retreat is to get all the staff of one level, so senior management, middle management, junior management together, and just get them to be more of a team to feel more… If you know people in your… Read More
And I took senior staff and then I took a whole bunch of middle management staff on retreats, two-day retreats out of the country, but just to Malaysia. And we went through the whole philosophy of why we were merging, how we were merging, what were the benefits, what were… Read More
Zoo directors in the US seem to be doing pretty good. Well, yeah, I think the Germans don’t… And I was talking to a German zoo director recently at WAZA, and he was saying, “Well, we don’t earn much money because we’re all civil servants.” And although they’re not, I… Read More
But that’s partly because Singapore has also pegged its civil servants and politicians on industry. And so politicians in Singapore and top civil servants are paid very, very high salaries indeed. I mean, a politician earns a million dollars a year. You mentioned retreats before. Read More
You must love people ’cause you’re a sociologist. I say, “No, love my wife, maybe my kids.” So it’s like but I respect animals now and a sociologist would respect people. I think it’s a subtle difference. And I think there are some people who love all animals. I think… Read More