I really didn’t have too much say over the keepers that we hired, as they were sent to us by the parks department, were a division of the parks department. And that was frustrating too. So it took a while for me to adjust to the whole operation out there. Read More
Did they automatically say, you’re our guy?… Read More
So at the ripe age of 26, I was appointed zoo director. And this was a different ball game. I’d been in private practice. And the method of operation is all together different when you’re in private practice. If you want something, need a instrument or something, you go out… Read More
And that was the way Crandon Park Zoo started. And it kind of grew like topsy, it just once they got a little money, they’d add another exhibit. There was no rhyme, no reason the way that it was laid out. But then Julie Allen Field left, I guess under… Read More
Some general impressions. Okay, well, the Crandon Park Zoo is located on Key Biscayne, in the Southern end of Grandon Park. 25 acres of zoo. It started back in 1947 when a traveling road show, animal show, disbanded and they sold their animals to Dade County. Metro-Dade County. There were… Read More
And then in 1948, they built a causeway across to Key Biscayne. Up until then, the only way you could get over there was by boat. I don’t think they had a ferry even. And they opened a zoo there. Now the first zoo director that they hired, her name… Read More
What were your first impressions of who was the director?… Read More
Maybe a little bit of the history, and what was it like when you got there?… Read More
And to me that was challenging. I enjoyed that kind of work. And so you were kind of thinking, I need to figure out how to do this full time. Yes, and I rode zoos around the country for two years in a row. I actually got a call from… Read More
And they said they were ready to hire veterinarian. So I flew down for an interview and we decided we would move down there. And moving from Cincinnati to Miami, Florida was like moving to a different country. It was quite a change, quite an adjustment, but we really enjoyed… Read More
And that was really the beginning of the zoo veterinary association. So when you were doing this, were you thinking, I want to get out of my dog and cat practice and I want to do full time at the zoo, or were you happy with what you were doing… Read More
What would you do in this situation?… Read More
What have you done?… Read More
Yes. What we did was, I remember coming to Chicago to meet with Les Fisher and I think Pat O’Connor was there. I don’t know if anybody was there at the time, but we decided that we had to communicate with each other so that it would help us in… Read More
I filled him when he wasn’t, but it got to be that I did just about all the work. If he got a call and he’d send me out, or if they had something that needed to be necropsy they’d bring it over, and I’d do the necropsy on it. Read More
Were you able to then communicate with these other part-time veterinarians, or other veterinarians in zoos?… Read More
So did you become kind of the go to guy that they would call, or that you only filled in when he wasn’t?… Read More
No, the guy I worked for was contracted to be a part-time vet at the zoo. And I was working for him, but he didn’t show up for work. So it was up to me. In spite of all that I still was interested in zoo work (chuckles). Read More
No, they didn’t have a full-time. There were only six in the country at that time as I recall. Pat O’Connor, Les Fisher, I forget where else the other ones were, but there weren’t many. Read More
So the Cincinnati Zoo approached you to be the part-time vet?… Read More