Banning private participation. The main issue with private participation was always the quality of those private facilities, the ethical standards of those facilities. When you’ve got an organization, or let’s just say a business operating outside of the way we as accredited institutions operate, number one and number two, you… Read More
Is education doing any good, particularly in boosting the image of zoos among the public in the face of the anti-zoo groups?… Read More
No, it was a mistake. Read More
How can the situation be changed?… Read More
No, I don’t think so. I don’t think you can build anything, anything without outside or undue influence. In 2010, AZA zoos and private breeders were essentially banned from participating in species survival plans. Read More
Did that hurt or help zoos?… Read More
That’s a great question. Through my involvement in the board of the AZA, I was intimately involved in those discussions for a number of years. And it was frustrating to me to attend a board meeting and have a committee report, and you would have just incredibly divergent opinions on… Read More
What issues would you like to see zoos address in the future?… Read More
Issues, I’m not sure what issues, but I would like to see something that I spoke to earlier. I would like to see greater separation in the minds of the public between AZA-accredited institutions and private or roadside zoos. I would like to see zoos, and I think we are… Read More
Can one build a zoo with an airtight insulation against interference from political or otherwise?… Read More
What issues caused you the most concern during your career, and how do you see the future regarding these same concerns?… Read More
Oh, that’s easy, money. I don’t think any zoo, whether it’s small, medium, or large, ever has enough money to do what it needs to do to provide its animals and its guests with the best possible experience. You’ve always juggling those balls. You got 10 balls in the air… Read More
You’ve gotta keep doing those things to keep the zoo a part of people’s lives. And that means you’ve gotta change. You’ve gotta evolve. And evolution in the way I’m referring to, it costs money. So it always comes back to the mighty dollar. Read More
This is in in our community, I can’t believe it.” And there’s been some research on this. I’ve read a lot of papers, but people now are looking for experiences. Not just to visit to the zoo, but I want an experience when I visit the zoo. I want to… Read More
And we’ve got some zoos that have embraced that in a far bigger way than I did. But I think it’s been good. I think it’s been good. Read More
But this happened organically with me. One of my heroes in the profession was a guy named Earl Wells, who was the director of, I think, one of the best little zoos in the world in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Earl was a guy who was way ahead of his time. Read More
He had just retired, and I got on a plane and flew to Fort Wayne, Indiana, which is not something you do every day.. And I saw this thing and I loved it. And so I came back and I told my board. I said, “I know you’re gonna think… Read More
We had climbing walls and zip lines. And every one of them made money, a lot of money. And the guests, back to your question, the guests embraced that. They embraced it. I had a gentleman tell me one time. I ran into him somewhere, and he said that he’d… Read More
I don’t think we’ve done a good job of that. There are some communication issues there and some cultural issues there, but we gotta find a way to make that all work. Read More
What changes have you seen during your years in the zoo field regarding visitor attitudes and administration at the national level?… Read More