We had the interesting things you don’t think about. One, you have to knock all the elephants down in the area because you just can’t go in and get– Explain what that is. Tranquilization shot from a tranquilizer dart from a helicopter. And you know, we in the zoo world,… Read More
And plus I had our veterinarian from our zoo and a veterinarian from Omaha and Lynn Kramer from Dallas plus the three veterinarians that we had in the field. I’ve got a picture of five elephants in one shot all knocked down that we’re having to treat, keep cool, keep… Read More
And because of the drought and the conditions deterioration over time, that got increased to 18 before this was through. But you know, we put together a budget and talked about a relationship and the discussion that this was a job that we were gonna need to have gonads because… Read More
We also knew that we were gonna have a public relations issue in which we all needed to act in unison, and this was gonna be bigger than our individual departments and so we hired Joe Allred and PCI to handle that end. And eventually when the time came, we… Read More
And Mike Bester had a relationship with them from earlier. This is a country that most of the animals had been exterminated by the 50s and the Reilly family with the blessing of the king developed first on their own property the first facility, Mlilwane, and then on the Kings… Read More
Well, to start with, it’s every kid’s dream. They go to Africa and bring animals back. I mean, that was my dream was the dream of old of going to get the animals for the zoo. I mean, that was right out of Dr. Seuss. You know, if I ran… Read More
And I had earlier, when I first took over the zoo as director, had that decision, like do I send them out for breeding or do I hope that artificial insemination can be done?… Read More
Well, that took a little bit longer than thought ‘cos I decided to keep and wait for that. And by the time we got it, it was too late. We did try it. But we now know that elephants under 20 years of age, if they haven’t had that first… Read More
We had Ken Stansell, who retired as the acting director of the Fish and Wildlife Service who had been head of the permit office when the elephants were imported 13 years earlier by Dallas, I mean by Tampa and San Diego. And we went over what we thought the options… Read More
But we felt like this exhibit took elephant exhibits to another level. It wasn’t the biggest, it was five acres. The biggest elephant pool in the world. We tried some new things, but for me personally, it was the most satisfying thing and the thing I’m most proud of. But… Read More
We actually made it within 24 hours of what our deadline was for how long we wanted to keep it a secret from the shipping date actually over to the out of Africa to the zoos. We kept that much of a clamp on it. Originally, we thought if it… Read More
Why?… Read More
I mean, we learned all the lessons from San Diego and Tampa, what they went through and what to prepare for. And I made a mental point of realizing what was going on. Every single one was read and looked at by our marketing department. I said I don’t need… Read More
It was cool! So that was my reaction on the thing. I think part of it was, you know, you can call it the brand of the zoo, but it was truly seen as the community zoo and the community was proud of what we’d done. Read More
Why are you emotional, because you survived this or because you gave them what you had the vision of?… Read More
Oh, I think it was just cool to see these elephants in. One, alive, two, our old female who had always been the matriarch when we just had two, but assume this and the public’s reaction. They were just so moved about wow, the exhibit, the elephants, a chance to,… Read More
And then to talk about your relationship with the zoo society and how did it change over the years?… Read More
We were fortunate, you know, I say in Kansas we eat meat. There was locally, we have a Kansas Humane Society. As you know, it’s not related to the American Humane Society and we had a working relationship with them on assisting and helping and still do. I made a… Read More
And over the years, she’d remind me of what I’d said over the years that I hadn’t fulfilled those promises yet on the elephant exhibit. And when the time came, she actually made a donation, even though she didn’t feel that elephants should be in zoos, but it was funny. Read More
When this went public, because at the last minute the government knew they were gonna get sued for issuing the permit, that they would have to do an environmental assessment. It had been declared that wasn’t needed because they’d done one earlier and this was the assessment of the elephants… Read More