We need to, we need to be the leaders in research for, for the herpes. And we have the largest medical center in the world next door. And I just got a call from the head virologist of Baylor College of Medicine and he asked if he could help. He… Read More
All the board members wanted to be on that committee. It was ’cause it was exciting. We were bringing people in, you know, now, now we had all these conservationists in the field that were part of our family. We had these great stories to tell. So that, that, that… Read More
And every elephant that we had born there died of elephant herpes, EEHV. We had a history of that to the point that the animal rights people, and even well, animal welfare people, you have no business having elephants. They’re all dying eventually. Not the adults, you know. So we… Read More
Did your conservation programs have difficulties getting off the ground?… Read More
No, not at all. Because what I did is, first of all, I had a board, at least leaders of the board that were big already attributed to conservation, especially the chair after Bill Barnett, Bob Graham. He was a, he and his wife Annie were incredible funders of conservation… Read More
We made the zoo a lot better. But it, it, it wasn’t, it was hard convincing her, but it wasn’t, it wasn’t hard convincing the board. And then, and then we had these galas that were all devoted to conservation. And I hired Bill Constant, he was my college buddy,… Read More
When the animal staff is crying that we have these horrible exhibits, you need the, the, these animals are in these horrible clo small areas in the back. The exhibit’s not, there’s no shade. So we had to address the animal issues first. At the same time I had to… Read More
Ones that did not overflow, the toilets didn’t overflow. And, and the old ones had natural ventilation that didn’t go very well. They weren’t even air condition, you know, it, it was, it was a pretty rundown old city zoo, you know, in 2000 and in the year 2000. So… Read More
Yeah, it, and it didn’t, it wasn’t based on seniority, just ’cause this person worked longer, had to get more money. We could reward the younger person that was working their ass off and doing a lot more. So, you know, your, your your bonuses, you didn’t get bonuses with… Read More
But there was the question before that. There was something else I was gonna add before the weather. You were talking about what you want to change right away. Yeah, I, the, the culture had to be changed too, you know, and that when you take over a new facility,… Read More
’cause weather, just the weather. Making sure you were prepared for disasters. Yeah, I, you know, almost everything could go inside and the flamingos could go in the bathrooms. That’s what you usually do with flamingos for hurricanes, you know, ’cause the flamingos just stand there. They’re fine. But, and… Read More
But again, I, did I answer the question?… Read More
It was in, it was in the, the nicest area of town. Most city zoos are, are usually not in very nice areas of town, or they used to be, but that now they’re not. So we, we, we were in a very good area for, for fundraising to improve… Read More
Did you have to deal with any We were in hurricane, we, we were very vulnerable to hurricanes. And it’s a low lying area where the zoo is in Herman Park. And we had a sign, one very significant hurricane when I was there. But we had a lot of… Read More
How does the zoo prepare for natural weather disasters?… Read More
Excuse me. How does the zoo, now you’re Houston Zoo and, and there have been hurricanes. Read More
You said, I gotta change this right away. The pair exhibit was horrible. It was so small, you know, and it was little and either get rid of it. And then we had a small mammal building that I said, we gotta close this thing. It’s just these window, you… Read More
Were there certain exhibits in your mind?… Read More
So, so we had some semi employees, but most of them that were five years or less, they didn’t, they they, they, they then went to to, to the new zoo and had a 401k instead of a retirement fund. And there were, there were a few keepers that didn’t… Read More
So it worked out, it worked out, it worked out pretty well. But it was stressful. It’s always stressful. It’s all, you know, and that, you know, the end result was worth it. But God, you know, there was a lot of debates When you were there looking at the… Read More