Interesting quotes from American Zoo Management

[Guest guest]

All quotes are from CBS.news in regards to recent deaths at San Francisco

Zoo on Dec 25, 2007:

 

San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel A. Mollinedo acknowledged that the wall

around the animal's pen was just 121Ž2 feet high, after previously saying it

was 18 feet. According to the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the walls

around a tiger exhibit should be at least 16.4 feet high.

 

Mollinedo said safety inspectors had examined the wall, built in 1940, and

never raised any red flags about its size.

 

When the AZA came out and inspected our zoo three years ago, they never

noted that as a deficiency, " he said. " Obviously now that something's

happened, we're going to be revisiting the actual height. "

 

" She had to have jumped, " he said. " How she was able to jump that high is

amazing to me.

 

AZA spokesman Steven Feldman said the minimum recommended height of 16.4

feet is just a guideline and that a zoo could still be deemed safe even if

its wall were lower. Accreditation standards require " that the barriers be

adequate to keep the animals and people apart from each other, " Feldman

said. " Obviously something happened to cause that not to be the case in this

incident. "

 

" I think it could be feasible for a cat that has been taunted or angered, "

Jack Hanna, former director of the Columbus Zoo, said Thursday. " I don't

think it would ever just do it to do it.

 

Opinion based on reports and a reading between the lines:

³These cover-your-behind bozos should have nothing to do with public safety

or the safe-keeping of wild animals.²

Jigs