I never really did. We had one veterinarian that gave us some problems, but I think everybody realized it and he quit. He didn’t last long. The best vet that we had was Scott Satino, and he was topnotch and he still is today. He’s good. Read More
Well, when I worked with curators, I always tried to reach a common ground with them. I mean, if you have a really serious life threatening situation, then you go to the zoo director and say, you resolve this. Listen to what we have to say, and it’s your problem… Read More
Did come to you?… Read More
And did you have a way around the obstacle if they disagreed with what you were doing, or try and get common ground?… Read More
You just have to sit these people down and explain to them that what they’re doing is bad. And if they’re unhappy to leave, (chuckles). I don’t know what else you can do with them. As a veterinarian, you worked with various curators. Yes. Read More
Oh, we always had the dissidents, the critics that thought they knew how to do things better. We had one situation where a newspaper came out, and they had a list. I think it was 10 complaints from a keepers. And one was about a lion that I had treated,… Read More
How did you resolve or were there ever these disputes between various groups, or did you have them as a veterinarian?… Read More
As you were zoo director, was there pressure put upon you to be the fundraiser?… Read More
I don’t think so. The zoological society pretty well handled that, and I think that should be their main role, is support fundraising. Moral support, whatever. And supplying funds that would be difficult to get from a municipal budget. Funds for travel, for instance, to Africa or whatever. So they… Read More
Yeah, so fundraising is not fun and I’m not a fundraiser. What I would do, would be to go out and give talks about the zoo. And then somebody else would give a pitch afterwards. I would not ask for money, I can’t do that sort of thing. But I… Read More
A little off the subject though, as a zoo director, were you ever involved in, or had to be involved in fundraising for your zoo?… Read More
But as a director and veterinarian, you’ve worked with quite a few curators, hired some, what do you think are the top qualities that a curator should have today?… Read More
Well, I think the top qualities of a curator today, would be the same as probably the zoo director. They certainly have to have a good knowledge if they’re mammal curators, if their mammals, and birds. But they really should have a good working relationship knowledge with curators and other… Read More
And these were girls that lived within a mile of the ocean and they had never seen the ocean before. And it’s just fantastic to get these inner city people out, to see these things. And if you can’t take the animals into them, or bust them out, you gotta… Read More
Oh, certainly. And certainly the Lincoln Parks is a good example of that. Located in the city. And it’s the only opportunity for many city folks to see animals. Many of them can’t get out where the major zoos are located and the Lincoln Park Zoo is a fantastic zoo. Read More
Crandon Park was a small zoo. We had only 22 acres. The animal collection grew, because we had a lot of reptiles, a lot of small mammals. And a tremendous bird collection. So collection wise, it was probably a medium size zoo, but size wise, it was small. Metro Zoo… Read More
Can small and medium size zoos make a difference in conservation?… Read More
Would you consider that a large major zoo, or would you consider it more of a smaller or middle size zoo?… Read More
Well, you can work in a zoo. If you can’t get a job there or part-time or full-time, become a volunteer. Become a docent, and just absorb as much as you can get as much experience as you can in that field. It does two things. One thing is it… Read More
We’ve talked about various zoos. The Bronx Zoo or Brookfield Zoo, are considered large major zoological institutions. When you were at Crandon Park, or even Metro as it started in the beginning. Read More