So it did take its toll, but I lived and breathed with the people and the animals. I felt like they were part of my responsibility to take good care of them and the best care possible. And so I fought in every way that we could take care of… Read More
That’s your job, and I think that’s important.” And I wish more people would do that for wild animals. So are you essentially the buffer between the people at Busch Entertainment and the people who work under you in trying to explain the- I wouldn’t necessarily refer to it as… Read More
This is where you take over from Jerry’s position?… Read More
Correct. And this is, again, “I raise my hand,” or they just, you just- No, it was just an assumption that that was my role, and I took it over. Read More
Are you really overwhelmed with all of this or is it just more intense?… Read More
It seems like, now, you said before it was, I’ll use my word, intense. Read More
This works, and they’re happy.” I said, “Good, thanks.” At what time did the company decide that killer whales would be the highlighted species of the park?… Read More
Was it already decided, or was it during your time as the zoological director?… Read More
I think the killer whales were always the highlight and the spotlight of the SeaWorld parks, way before I even got to SeaWorld. So I didn’t really have anything to do with using them as our icon species or part of our logo. It was already part of the marketing… Read More
And I just said, “Well, what’s with this bear deal?… Read More
Why do we have little bears here?” And he says, “Well, they come from Bear World in Montana,” or something like that. And I go, “What? Bear World?” And I didn’t even know it existed. And I said, “Well, what are we doing after the summer?” And he said, “Well,… Read More
And I often thought, “This doesn’t make a lot of sense, because hardly anybody goes into it and people don’t really like bats,” even though they should, ’cause bats are important. But it wasn’t really the type of facility I liked. And so there was many, many times where I… Read More
I’m sure that team was a little more, “Oh, okay boss.” No, the team, they did not wanna make the change. And some of them we found other jobs in the park because they said, “Well, we don’t wanna do that.” And I said, “I respect that. That’s fine with… Read More
Were there any animals, terrestrial animals, at the time that you said, “Oh my gosh, we got these?… Read More
What am I gonna do?” There was, in Williamsburg, we had a somewhat of a children’s petting zoo, very old-fashioned. And I was talking to the curator there. And we were there during the middle of the summer. And there was a little bit of an ugly, old exhibit. And… Read More
And I didn’t know much about them and where they came from. Read More
Can you make big decisions?… Read More
The activity level changed dramatically, but any time we decided to get involved with an acquisition of an animal, or a disposition of an animal, I would just simply take it to my boss, John, and others who succeeded him, and just said, “Here’s what I’m doing, here’s why. I… Read More
Now, this new position, it’s, again, all over the United States?… Read More
It is, the animals were at Busch Gardens Tampa and Busch Gardens Williamsburg, the three SeaWorld parks, ’cause Ohio now had closed. We built Discovery Cove in the early ’90s. Aquatica has animals, now across the street here in Orlando. So there are animals at all those locations. Read More