Montgomery Zoo AZA Accreditation

C

Caretaker

Active Member
How come the Montgomery Zoo is no longer accreditated by AZA? I have heard some reasons about the directors reasons for dropping it but not from reliable sources. Does anyone know?
How come you are not hearing all the usual threats from AZA on pulling their SSP animals and the usual retoric. This has been kept very low key. Why?
 
Caretaker said:
How come the Montgomery Zoo is no longer accreditated by AZA? I have heard some reasons about the directors reasons for dropping it but not from reliable sources. Does anyone know?
How come you are not hearing all the usual threats from AZA on pulling their SSP animals and the usual retoric. This has been kept very low key. Why?
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I suppose the zoo felt that ZAA membership was enough.

If you look at the AZA website, although the zoo is not listed as accredited, many reciprocal arrangements are listed. Perhaps that is an oversight.
 
It is not an oversight. The zoo's website does not have them listed as AZA accreditated. Many zoos who are not AZA members have reciprocal agreements with AZA zoos.

I know this zoo has many questions being raised about its elephant program and the deaths of some giraffes. I'm just trying to find out the facts about the zoo and the management which is running it.
 
Caretaker said:
It is not an oversight. The zoo's website does not have them listed as AZA accreditated. Many zoos who are not AZA members have reciprocal agreements with AZA zoos.

I know this zoo has many questions being raised about its elephant program and the deaths of some giraffes. I'm just trying to find out the facts about the zoo and the management which is running it.
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Have you contacted the zoo?
 
Zooplantman said:
AZA announced that Montgomery Zoo did not pass accreditation review. They could appeal.
AZA Accreditation Commission Grants Accreditation to 22 Facilities
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Thanks for posting the link. I'm extremely curious as to why certain facilities are denied accreditation, but the AZA is clearly tightening up on its requirements. Chahinkapa Zoo (North Dakota), Montgomery Zoo (Alabama) and Erie Zoo (Pennsylvania) join Columbus Zoo (Ohio) and Safari West (California) to make it 5 zoos in 5 different states that have all recently been denied accreditation. I could well be the only ZooChatter to have visited all 5 of those establishments, but I realize that what a visitor sees doesn't necessarily have anything to do with flaws in a zoo. A denial of accreditation could be linked to finances, veterinary care or a variety of other issues.

On a side note, it's nice to see the Montreal Biodome become an AZA accredited institution.
 
snowleopard said:
Thanks for posting the link. I'm extremely curious as to why certain facilities are denied accreditation, but the AZA is clearly tightening up on its requirements. Chahinkapa Zoo (North Dakota), Montgomery Zoo (Alabama) and Erie Zoo (Pennsylvania) join Columbus Zoo (Ohio) and Safari West (California) to make it 5 zoos in 5 different states that have all recently been denied accreditation. I could well be the only ZooChatter to have visited all 5 of those establishments, but I realize that what a visitor sees doesn't necessarily have anything to do with flaws in a zoo. A denial of accreditation could be linked to finances, veterinary care or a variety of other issues.

On a side note, it's nice to see the Montreal Biodome become an AZA accredited institution.
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When I was around ZooTampa during an accreditation cycle, it is really, really stringint. Back at that time (early 2000's) the AZA would be strict on seemingly minor things such as behind the scenes plantings, back of the house general maintenance and look (paint, structures, etc.). I can only imagine it has become more difficult.
Coelacanth18 said:
The wording of the sentence "As existing members, Chahinkapa and Erie have 30 days to appeal" makes it sound like only zoos that are current AZA members can appeal. Is that not the case?
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I am not an AZA insider, but I believe that is the case. I believe you go back to the Pathway program and try again in the next cycle, if you were in the Pathway program.

It is expensive to not pass, if you are not a Pathway member:
2021 Accreditation Filing Fees:
PTM Participant $3,500
Non-PTM Participant Based on annual budget:
< 6 million $8,000
6 – 19 million $12,000
20 million & larger $15,000


Basically, if you are part of the program you should pass, I have no idea if Montgomery is part of it or not. But given many zoo's financial issues from Covid, I would not be surprised if it is more of a financial and staffing related issue than animal care.
 
SwampDonkey said:
I believe you go back to the Pathway program and try again in the next cycle, if you were in the Pathway program.

It is expensive to not pass, if you are not a Pathway member:
2021 Accreditation Filing Fees:
PTM Participant $3,500
Non-PTM Participant Based on annual budget:
< 6 million $8,000
6 – 19 million $12,000
20 million & larger $15,000


Basically, if you are part of the program you should pass, I have no idea if Montgomery is part of it or not. But given many zoo's financial issues from Covid, I would not be surprised if it is more of a financial and staffing related issue than animal care.
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That doesn't seem expensive (given the total organization budget) to me.
But the issue may indeed be weakened finances. AZA consideres whether a member institution is financially sound enough to guarantee the proper care of the collection and facility.
Alabama’s zoos fight to keep animals fed, people employed
 
Zooplantman said:
That doesn't seem expensive (given the total organization budget) to me.
But the issue may indeed be weakened finances. AZA consideres whether a member institution is financially sound enough to guarantee the proper care of the collection and facility.
Alabama’s zoos fight to keep animals fed, people employed
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It's more expensive than it looks, but you are right, the base price is not really that high. The cost of Pathway also requires them to pay for the mentor/training, and if they have to come on site the zoo has to pay for the travel and expenses of the team that comes out. Overall I guess it is really not that big a price when the overall budget is taken into consideration.
 
Montgomery Zoo was applying for accreditation and got denied. They participate in SSPs within AZA and a couple other programs.

The theme of AZAs inspection process announced a couple of years ago is “Animal Welfare.” The have made amendments to their policies to make them much stricter. There is much more of a focus on individual animals welfare. They are looking at exhibit space, size, and naturalism much more closely than before. From what I heard Erie got dinged on this.

It is known amount the animal community that certain zoos shouldn’t be accredited based on practices. Similar to the rest of the country in terms of staff welfare and labor shortages, the same thing is happening in zoos. Staff aren’t letting facilities get away with it anymore. Chahinkapa zoo was an example of this.
 
Does anyone know if Columbus Zoo was able to join back into the AZA? I know that they had a month or something to get a repeal.
 
Animallover360 said:
Does anyone know if Columbus Zoo was able to join back into the AZA? I know that they had a month or something to get a repeal.
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Given they're mentioned in the AZA press release, I presume they didn't appeal. They didn't really have grounds for it, it was fairly clear cut given it wasn't a matter of fixing some fencing or obtaining a vet or anything like that.
 
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