We let him run loose in the office, in the hospital area. And then we took him out to schools and let the kids pet him and all that. Cheetahs are interesting animal. They’re whole different animal than a lion or a tiger. Their whole disposition’s different. They’re spooky animal… Read More
So I did find him walked over to the deer exhibit and I knew there was empty pen in the next door, and this’ll be easier. I just opened up the gate and heard him right in. So I opened up the gate, walked into the exhibit my god, he… Read More
But he was very tame. When the keepers cleaned out his chain link exhibit, they’d just walk right in with him and he’d come up and stand beside him, he’s scratching behind the ear on top of the head. And he just loved it. Well, I walked over that way… Read More
Can you tell us about the deer story?… Read More
Yeah, you know, one thing about working with zoo animals and wild animals in general, is that they’re unpredictable. I think people buy exotic animals as pets thinking that they’re gonna tame them down. They’re always gonna be nice animals, but they’re wild animals and they just don’t make good… Read More
Was because we had these people that… You know, the (indistinct) that thought they were doing something good by complaining about the way animals were kept in cages, I guess. But we pretty well dispelled that and nothing really came of that. Can you tell us… We’re talking about stories. Read More
1975. It must have been Crandon Park Zoo then. We had keepers that… In fact, I remember the television reporter that came out to investigate animal abuse allegations. He said, “You know, here are a list “of 10 complaints or something.” And one of them was a male lion that… Read More
Was it Crandon Park Zoo?… Read More
We did get it into her. She survived and she had several calves normally after that. So it was a successful procedure. Now from the crazy things that happened in 1975, there was a report that was submitted that some of the animals were being abused. Read More
Was there any evidence of abuse and how did you handle that kind of situation?… Read More
We gave her a long acting penicillin, and I figured, okay, I was gonna have to give her a shot every other day, a long acting penicillin, just to make sure we didn’t get peritonitis. This whole thing. Well, the first shot wasn’t so bad. You know, she stood there… Read More
Probably about 15 or 20 pounds overweight, dead and pulled it up. And then we had to suture her up. And of course it only takes about 15 or 20 minutes to make all the incisions. It takes a couple hours to sew her up. And I sewed up the… Read More
I came home in middle of supper, six o’clock or so he called and he said, “She’s down, she won’t get up.” Said, oh god, we gotta do a cesarean section now. So everybody had gone home. We had the night keeper and we had a friend of ours, a… Read More
And I had all the instruments there, and we tied her front legs to one palm tree back legs to another palm tree and shaved her side, left side and got ready. In fact, I started the incision and it started to pour down rain. So we covered up the… Read More
600 pounds, 700 maybe for the male. Cape buffalo weighs 1200 pounds. So they’re half the size. But we did not cut down on the amount of food. So they got really fat and we just didn’t keep on top of the whole thing. Well, one day the keeper came… Read More
Oh, forest buffalo weighs what?… Read More
We put all the lions in the night house, and drug these things into the outside exhibit. But they had gotten out of a giraffe exhibit that had rock base to it. I mean, they were big boulders in there, and how they dug out, I don’t know. But they… Read More
I got in the pickup truck and I drove around the zoo and there was no lights in the zoo. It was perfectly dark. Couldn’t find the hyenas. So I figured, okay, I’m gonna have to walk around. So I got outta the truck, and I started walking around the… Read More
He ran back there with that dart and the other two were sniffing around what’s going on, what’s going on. So I went up while they were there, walked right up to them and shot the other two. Had all three of them knocked out within well, 45 minutes after… Read More
So I figured the only thing I could do would be to try and shoot them with a capture gun, and tranquilize them. So I drove up to the hospital, I (indistinct) up six darts, figuring I could miss each animal one time. But I had three of them. I… Read More