She had a group of at one time, 60, 65 spider monkeys that dwindled down to smaller numbers from inbreeding animals weren’t bred in, the exhibit was, you know, a 60 year old falling apart, concrete mess. And I remember that they wanted to have a picture, get a picture… Read More
What had you hoped to accomplish but were unable to finish?… Read More
I’m not sure I really ever had a life goal. I was always a behind the scenes guy. I did not like being up front. I liked the idea of being able, whether to acquire the animal, to get the permit, to get the stuff done, to get the animal… Read More
Simplest thing, I was maxing out on my pension. It wouldn’t get anymore if I worked longer, very simple. So it was more of a financial consideration. Yeah. I mean, like I said, I certainly knew my time has come, but yeah, it was a financial decision. Read More
How did you know it was time to retire?… Read More
And I just, I’m not that type of thinker where I think you have to manage a collection of animals and you can love the animal, but love the individual. It’s not my cup of tea, it’s not my style, whether we’ve gone too far at San, whether they have… Read More
So they could do a blood draw, I would laugh. You know, we don’t have the time, effort, it can’t be done, you look at some of these training that people have done from the biggest to the smallest it’s phenomenal and wonderful, and certainly benefits, the animal, stuff like… Read More
Well, the profession has evolved so much, whether it be, that was 43 years ago, opposed the last 25 years in the field, when I was first started in the business, Lincoln Park, which was considered a small zoo, had a massive collection. And there was probably as many animals… Read More
While all this is going on, these various directors are coming in and out of the life of the zoo, the last zoo San Francisco we worked at, there are things going on in the zoo world, which have nothing to do with them personally or professionally, but they’re happening,… Read More
So, I mean, after initially starting to change and trying to get this rhino, I’m sorry, this tapir into the exhibit, we changed things back. We never started construction and moved the hippo in there, which I think is a much better exhibit for the public than the tapir, seeing… Read More
So it would hold this tapir. I mean, she’s thinking baby, it lives much like a hippo, it’s aquatic, it’s a herbivore, I don’t know exactly her thoughts, but it was gonna cost us. We had price it out over $100,000 to modify this exhibit that was designed to hold… Read More
It was a new game every time, needless to say, over the last, I guess five or six years that I worked at the zoo, well, let me back up a little, we talked about some great detail. When with David Anderson and David Robinett, I started working very closely… Read More
He was pro animal, pro animal management staff wanting the animal management department to have more say, so what happens with the collection and not just randomly have other departments dictating what we wind up doing or not doing. So, yeah, from the beginning of David Anderson’s tenure to the… Read More
How did these various directors affect you as a curator and your ability to manage the collections?… Read More
I mean, we used to wind up having to give her, send a report when an animal was questionable, you know, a heads up, oh, the Guinea pig doesn’t look good, and we don’t know, it’s six years old. They normally live three years. It has no teeth, you know,… Read More
But yeah, animals hurt themselves, animals severely hurt themselves, and things have to be done. And literally it would be something as possibly as not as important. I don’t know what the right words are. As a Guinea pig was severely injured, gutted, nothing possibly to do, but you couldn’t… Read More
I also believe that boards are very reticent to admit to making mistakes with their choices. And they will go above and beyond hoping, praying, whatever they do, thinking that their initial choice was the right decision. And I saw this, I think with the last two directors, I stand… Read More
And one of these things that cost us at times, I assume it still cost us today a lot of angst was the euthanasia policy. And you’re in the animal, in that resolution. It says that that the zoo director shall make all decisions about euthanasia. And previously to that,… Read More
I think at some point in time, I believe she caught the fever and she liked the idea of being zoo director and by osmosis, by affiliation that sometime, soon as someone gets the title as director, they know everything. Tanya had us, she was making decisions on emotion and… Read More
So the zoo emotionally, the institutional emotion was not in good shape at the end of Manuel’s tenure. We had the tiger incident, we had his management style, we had his knowledge or lack thereof and the zoo, like I say, emotionally, if you look at it, institution emotion, I… Read More