But he said, “Well, can all the animals live indoors?” And I said, “Sure, as long as they have an outdoor facility too that’s attached.” “So they can live indoors?” And I go, “Yeah.” And so that was probably one of the few times I probably winged it off the… Read More
What’s the animal gonna gain?… Read More
What’s the issues?” and so we could lay out sort of the educational pitch. And most of the time, as long as it was done in a very laid-out manner and very orderly, the folks at Busch Entertainment were great, absolutely great. Read More
“Tell me what you need, and why do you need that?… Read More
What’s the issue here?… Read More
What are we gonna gain?… Read More
Now there’s even bigger responsibilities?… Read More
Well, certainly it brought more responsibilities and more meetings and more activity. But I had grown accustomed to that kind of a work ethic and that work. It was like 120 miles an hour all the time. And it was on the West Coast and East Coast. It wasn’t just… Read More
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