But now when I became a zookeeper, then a curator in Knoxville, and then that’s about where I went to. And then I was just lucky, and it’s long, we get into that, how I got to central Florida zoo, where I was the director of five employees. But you… Read More
So I learned by reading, I learn by experience. That was invaluable to me, those things I learned when I was 18 20, 21, 22, 23. I also learned about accidents. And we’ll get into that in a second. If you read my book about how that little boy lost… Read More
Things happen to all of us. I could go on and on and tell you mistakes I made. You know, but we’ll get into that too. When I had the Wallendas walk across the tigers. I mean, this, the crazy things I did back then. I would never do that… Read More
You kidding me?… Read More
As I’ve traveled the world, every, I mean, I’ve traveled for 30-something years doing this. And I’ve not been to every corner, but about every corner. And so what you see out there are people who love animals. You see people who have consumption animals, and you see how we… Read More
And do you think some of these experiences, we’re talking about a lot of other things, but some of those experiences early on in your career were preparing, even though you weren’t thinking about it, were preparing you to be a zoo director?… Read More
Oh, there’s no doubt about the experiences I was experiencing came back so critical for me being a zoo director. There’s no doubt about, I didn’t know it at the time. Read More
Well, you had fun there didn’t you?… Read More
you fed peanuts to the chimps. You sometimes made funny signs to the animals and that kind of thing, at least the public did. Me, I just was fascinated by looking at the animals. And so, you know that changed my life. I said, I’m gonna be a zookeeper. I… Read More
Like Tom Stalph, he’s like seasoned executive officer, president, zoo director, all in one big old title, across a piece of paper. You’re my age, You know what I’m talking about. Zoo Director, Assistant Zoo Director, Chief Curator, Curator, First Keeper One, First Keeper Two, and ever down. And then… Read More
I took his knife, I was going backwards with it. I don’t know, I just, I was fascinated by the pets, and sure some people had pet birds and stuff like that. And that was, or a snake or something, that was really rare back then, but they did do… Read More
Did I know the difference in caging and moats?… Read More
Not really. Most of us didn’t by the way. As I tell people, by the way, most zoos in this country in 1950s, 60s, even early 70s, should’ve been shut down back then. And I’ll go in later about why today is a much different story. And thank God they… Read More
So, my animals, and you know, that’s just kinda how everything started. Let me, you mentioned that you wanted to be, and you had a vision of wanting to be a zookeeper, an animal keeper. Read More
And why did you want to be an animal keeper?… Read More
I don’t know, I just, I, all those years I cleaned cages at the clinic. I didn’t mind cleaning cages. You know, I don’t know what it was, but I just had fun hosing and cleaning. Maybe it was, another relief for me, or just something I was accomplishing. I… Read More
I then took his pet shop, I opened up a boarding kennel, I’m building about these trailers out back real nice. I made me a little pens, with goats and sheep and not exotic, you know, llamas and stuff like that. And ’cause Knoxville Zoo was 20 miles away. I… Read More
I think it didn’t help at all, as far as having pets as exotic pets. But one thing I didn’t do, I didn’t go out selling lions and things like that, by any means. I had Daisy, my lion, I learned from. You know, I learned from this lion. She… Read More
They thought I might be avoiding it, but I wasn’t because my best man at my wedding, my five best friends were all killed in Vietnam in eight months. So, you know, I knew I had to do something, but therefore I got removed out on a medical thing after… Read More
“I mean, your courses you took, “you majored in political science.” I did that because I’ve dropped back a second ’cause I was drafted the army during the Vietnam War. So, all my family went in the service, but that’s another story. The point is I just wanted to graduate,… Read More