DME Article on Privatized Dallas Zoo. Write DMN LTE w/o Delay, Please. Cross Post Widely

[Guest guest]

Please write the Dallas Morning News (and the Dallas Observer) and voice your thoughts regarding the false and upbeat portrait of the privatized Dallas Zoo described in the 1/5/10 Dallas Morning News Article (below).

 

Please write without delay. We get few enough chances to speak for Jenny and Gypsy these days. We may not have another for a long time. Jenny (and Gypsy) are due for a few letters to the editor. The Zoo counts on our giving up so we must not. Let's not let this go unchallenged.

 

The Dallas Zoo was privatized in a gigantic give-away of property owned by the citizens of Dallas to The Dallas Zoological Society, a private organization of wealthy individuals who are beholden to no one for the welfare of the animals (see Concerned Citizens for Jenny's 8/11/09 Press Release at the end of this email thread). We can no longer even get veterinary records. The decision to put Zoo privatization on the following Wednesday's Dallas City Council agenda was done late on a Friday afternoon (after 5:30 PM) when there was no one there to hear it and it was too late to mobilize Jenny supporters to speak against it at the Council meeting. Please write a Letter to the Dallas Morning News Editor, which is the best way for the greatest number of people to see your remarks and to remember that Jenny is still suffering. You may also leave a comment on the article's home page by clicking on the link to the DMN article. Follow the DMN (and Dallas Observer, who did not publish this article but has always been fair to Jenny) LTE guidelines listed in below links (be sure to mention the title of the DMN article). Dallas Morning News LTE: http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/lettertoed.cgi Dallas Observer LTE: http://www.dallasobserver.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee/?department=letters Jenny (and Gypsy) living conditions remain abysmal. They share less than 1/4 acre between them (where Jenny has been incarcerated for 23 years). They will not be significantly better off when the new exhibit is finished. Elephants need to walk miles a day to stay healthy, not a few feet, which is all they will have in the new exhibit (or the current one). As we know, Dr. Gay Bradshaw, the foremost authority on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in elephants has diagnosed Jenny with this debilitating illness from which she can never recover while in the Dallas Zoo. These suffering, intelligent elephants need to retire to The Elephant Sanctuary, where Jenny will get the care she needs for PTSD. And, Jenny and Gypsy will have the life that an elephants was meant to have.

 

Thank you. Margaret Morin, Concerned Citizens for Jenny

Dallas Morning News article published on the front page on 1/5/10 (below).

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-privatezoo_05met.ART.State.Edition2.4bd5984.html

 

 

Newly privatized Dallas Zoo looking ahead to Savanna habitat, other changes

 

12:00 AM CST on Tuesday, January 5, 2010

 

By DAVID FLICK / The Dallas Morning News dflick

 

 

The start of 2010 marks the end of a tough decade for the Dallas Zoo, but perhaps the beginning of a turnaround year.

 

 

 

REX C. CURRY/Special ContributorThe Dallas Zoo's giraffes, including Jesse (left) and Kibo, will be joined by six to nine more at the new habitat.

The Oak Cliff institution has endured financial crisis and political controversy, including the international criticism that followed a 2004 gorilla attack and a spirited debate in 2008 over the fate of Jenny the elephant.

Dallas City Council voted last summer to turn over management of the municipal zoo to the private Dallas Zoological Society, and the new year promises to bring a spurt of new attractions, more animals and the opening of the zoo's most ambitious exhibit in a generation.

 

 

 

JIM MAHONEY/DMNThe Giants of the Savanna habitat is taking shape at the Dallas Zoo. The 11-acre project, scheduled to open in late spring, will include a restaurant and 'base camp' (center) offering excellent views of the animals and grasslands.

"I think we're finally at a point where we can say this is where we want to be," said Gregg Hudson, executive director of the Dallas Zoo. "I don't want to set expectations too high, but this really could be the watershed year for us."

Some of the changes were in the works long before the zoo's privatization, which was completed in October.

The Giants of the Savanna habitat, the zoo's biggest project since the Wilds of Africa opened in 1990, is a product of the 2006 city bond campaign.

Scheduled to open in late spring, the 11-acre habitat will seek to replicate the African grasslands, populated with elephants, giraffes, lions, cheetahs, ostriches and zebras.

Other long-planned projects are coming on line this spring.

 

The aging Cat Row will be converted into a Texas Predators exhibit that will feature ocelots and mountain lions. And the process of closing the "top of the hill" exhibits will begin, with some of the marquee animals, such as rhinos and cheetahs, moved to more prominent settings.

The two episodes that brought bad publicity will also result in visible changes next year.

Perhaps the biggest blow to the zoo's image occurred in March 2004, when Jabari, a 13-year-old western lowland gorilla, escaped his enclosure by making a running leap over a 14-foot wall. He mauled three zoo visitors before being killed by Dallas police, and the story attracted global attention.

Controversy erupted again in 2008, after zoo officials announced plans to move Jenny, then the zoo's last remaining elephant, to a wildlife park in Mexico. Celebrities – most notably comedian Lily Tomlin – protested the plan, saying the pachyderm should go to the broader expanses of Tennessee. Jenny stayed in Dallas and was joined by another elephant, Gypsy, last July.

However painful, the controversies triggered internal debates about how the zoo was run and what the institution should be. An internal study following the Jabari incident, for example, called for new leadership, leading to the 2006 hiring of Hudson.

The new director's background included the hospitality industry and – tellingly – a stint as executive director of the Fort Worth Zoo during its own transition to privatization in the early 1990s.

Not coincidentally, the Dallas Zoo, whose leaders long believed the facility should operate primarily as an educational institution, will in 2010 see entertainment-friendly features more typical of zoos such as Fort Worth's.

The Savanna habitat, for example, will include a restaurant with vistas of the animals and grasslands. The zoo will offer camel rides, and visitors to the children's zoo can help feed the goats.

The Jenny debate also had its consequences, though some of these will be less visible.

The debate caused zoo officials to rethink their plans – they decided to keep Jenny and expedite long-range plans for a larger facility in Dallas. Current plans call for the zoo to keep up to eight elephants.

The activists' concerns also prompted officials to reimagine the facility in a way that will give the animals more physical exercise and mental stimulation.

"When I first came in, I wasn't sure, quite frankly, that we even wanted to continue to have elephants," Hudson said. "Jenny was a turning point. ... My hope is that when people walk in and see the new facility, they'll say this is the best thing that could have happened."

The decision last year to privatize the Dallas Zoo is likely to have a profound effect on the institution, but perhaps in less obvious ways.

Michael Meadows, president of the Dallas Zoological Society, said the most profound difference will be a change in culture – making it more entrepreneurial and more responsive.

"When it was a city operation, it was difficult to make changes in staff; it was a kind of a tenured-faculty situation," he said. "Now that it's privately managed and, say, there's someone at the front gate that's taking tickets and not greeting people with a smile, we can say, 'This might not be the best job for you.' "

During the privatization discussions last summer, Meadows argued that it would be easier to raise money for a privately run zoo.

Early in December, the point seemed proved when the zoological society announced that four donors had pledged $2.25 million since privatization began Oct. 1.

Still, Meadows acknowledges that the ongoing recession has complicated matters.

"It's a tough economy, but there's a willingness to donate and we have a credibility with the private sector that wasn't there before," he said.

Admission fees were raised shortly before the City Council voted for privatization last summer. One widely feared change – that they would increase again in the near future – may not occur, according to Hudson.

"The feeling is that we want to increase revenue not by raising prices again, but by bringing more people through the turnstile," he said.

Nationally, zoos that have privatized have generally done well, said Terry Maple, director of the Palm Beach Zoo in Florida.

"The track record is pretty good," he said. "Even privatized zoos that are struggling because of the economy are probably better off. Things are even tighter on local governments."

Maple, former director of the Atlanta Zoo, is widely considered an expert in turning around ailing zoos.

Privatization of management will distance the zoo from local politics, he said, and because the city of Dallas has retained ownership of the facility, it will be able to ask voters for bond money to finance high-profile projects. He advised Dallas Zoo officials to think of themselves as competing with theme parks. The entrance has to be inviting, and the grounds need to be clean and exciting, he said.

Even blockbusters like the Giants of the Savanna lose their luster quickly, he said, so there must be a continuing challenge to stay fresh.

"No matter how successful they are the first year, in the second year, attendance is going to drop. So you've got to have some new program, something to attract people back," he said

At the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, which is considered a model of successful privatization, deputy director Bruce Bohmke cautions Dallas officials and the public to be patient.

"Switching over takes time. Even after seven years, we have employees who think they are still working for the city," he said. "And as late as five years out, we discovered that we were still operating two separate switchboards."

By privatizing, Dallas is joining a nationwide trend, Maple said.

 

"Everything in the zoo business has changed, and Dallas is making itself part of this revolution," he said. "I think they'll be very successful."

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August 11, 2009 Press Release from Concerned Citizens for Jenny in which We Opposed the Privatization of the Dallas Zoo.

Press Conference:Citizens to Urge City Council to Stop or Slow Dallas Zoo Privatization

Local grassroots organization seeks halt to zoo animal giveaway; wants oversight measures in zoo management deal What: Press Conference against proposed Dallas Zoo privatization When: August 12, 2009 8:30

a.m. Where: Dallas City Hall by the Fountains Dallas, Texas . On Wednesday morning, Concerned Citizens for Jenny, a Dallas grassroots advocacy organization for elephants Jenny and Gypsy at the Dallas Zoo, will hold a press conference to expose

what it terms "a backroom deal" to privatize Dallas Zoo and giveaway "ownership" of the animals there to the Dallas Zoological Society (DZS). The Jenny and Gypsy Advocacy group, armed with information published only at the 11th hour by Dallas City Council and also provided by the national zoo watchdog group In Defense of Animals, is seeking to maintain city ownership of the animals at the zoo, retain public access to zoo information and institute meaningful city oversight of this public

institution.

"The City is rushing to pass a deal to privatize our zoo without proper vetting and no opportunity for public input," said Margaret Morin, founder of Concerned Citizens for Jenny, noting that the item is on the consent agenda for the Council's August 12 meeting, meaning it could be passed by a single vote, along with 68 other items, and no public discussion. "The current proposal gives the Dallas Zoological Society $337 million plus city property, including the animals, and will cost many dozens of city jobs. It's a sweetheart deal for the zoological society, but a bad deal for the citizens of Dallas and the animals at the zoo." "What do the citizens get in exchange? We are losing our voice in how this public zoo operates and treats the animals who reside there," Morin continued. "These animals belong to the Citizens of Dallas. We have a moral and ethical obligation to ensure their care. These animals are completely at our mercy." The proposed deal lacks provisions to safeguard the public interest, Morin said. At tomorrow's press conference, she will release several documents among which is a memo circulated to City Council yesterday by Suzanne Roy, program director for In Defense of Animals, a national animal welfare and zoo watchdog organization. In the memo, Roy urged the council to take several steps to ensure public accountability, oversight and animal welfare in any privatization venture, by:

-- Maintaining ownership of the zoo's animals. .-- Guaranteeing continued public access to zoo information and records, currently available through the Texas Public Information Act. -- Establishing an oversight committee that includes representatives of animal welfare organizations.

Morin advocates for a full and independent audit of the proposed arrangement as well as the immediate cessation of activity on this proposed action until the audit is completed and the Citizens of Dallas have had an opportunity to learn all the facts and express their opinions.

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