I was a good collection manager but probably there’s some personnel issues, probably going back and looking at it. I’d probably say, I probably should have treated these and I should have done this a little differently later. Sometimes the personnel issues weren’t caused by me. They were caused by… Read More
I probably didn’t play politics very well. And so for that point, I wasn’t probably very good at that. And some people are, some people aren’t, I probably was too candid. Probably should have kept a lot more on my chest but that’s just the way I am. We’re all… Read More
There’s probably those who would argue the point. (laughter) I don’t know. I don’t think I was that much different than others. I believed in the purposes of the institution. I believed in plans. I believed in working plans. I believed in all the logical approaches that had been done… Read More
When we run up against something that was different. Yeah, you don’t know till you try but you do it. I’m a big risk manager. I am not a gambler. So, if I ventured into a space that I didn’t know about, I wasn’t comfortable with, I did it with… Read More
Made me a good one?… Read More
Everybody been told this is gonna happen. We’ve known people that the same thing has happened to. So, everyone was aware that this could happen and it did. And one night she went down and couldn’t get back up and then we had to euthanize her. Read More
What made you a good zoo director?… Read More
So, Judy the elephant had spent the majority of her life there. When we had a definite confirmation that she had cancer, we had a press conference and we let the community know immediately. Judy has got a health issue. Now, everybody knows about cancer. There’s some cancers you can… Read More
Judy the elephant and the new dolphin Lily and that type of thing?… Read More
I don’t remember so much about the death of Lily. Those animals didn’t belong to the zoo. And when it came to and I don’t even know that I remember why the animal died but I think our veterinarian and the veterinarian that worked with that particular entity, I think… Read More
How did you handle the deaths of popular animals?… Read More
Well, anytime we had a new exhibit opening or something. Oh yeah, absolutely. And you had have ’em for that. I said that they’re good on one side and they’re evil on the other. Yeah, they were most helpful when we got a new animal in, they were always looking… Read More
I think every institution does. And now every institution has deaths of animals that occur. They’re all die at some point in time. Read More
Did you ever see the value of using or were you able to use the media in your favor?… Read More
“Well, we contacted the Oklahoma City Zoo and they said, ‘No comment.'” That could have been the end of it but oh no, we felt that we needed to tell our side of the story but there wasn’t any way of what you were going to say were they’re going… Read More
And when you see the final cuts come through, then you realize that they have cut out some very salient points that I was trying to make and it’s not that they piece phrases together, they just leave it hanging. It’s a real art I’m sure but that’s what it… Read More
What are they going to say?… Read More
We sold an animal, a Speke’s gazelle. Hell, this is all public record I guess. We sold a Speke’s gazelle to an animal dealer with the caveat that he was to take it to either the San Diego Zoo, which had a collection that Speke’s gazelles or he was to… Read More
And the first person they approached was San Diego and Jim Dolan And he figured out real quick what they were up to. And he called me, he says, “Brace yourself. Guess what?” And he told me, they even sent me a copy of the tape that they did. So,… Read More
What was your experience and why were you involved?… Read More