Franklin Zoo (Closed) Elephant Kills Woman at Franklin Zoo

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OK, the breakdown of the expenses for shipping Mila to the US now seem quite apparent.

Cost of crate to contain her, $00.00 (offer of free crate from local business)
Cost of Freight to the US ($00.00 (Freight company has offered free freighting)
Cost of Elephant keepers ($00.00 (Ratcliffe and a couple of family members are prepared to look after her for free
Cost of feed while in transit ($00.00 More feed had been donated than she could ever eat)
Cost of Jenny Chung's fee to supervise this $1,450,000
 
if they are closing down the zoo the land it sits on would easily be worth more than even the cost stated for shifting Mila, but I guess Jenny won't want to be dipping into her inheritance.

Where has Helen's husband got to? Tom used to be well involved in helping run the zoo, but seems to have vanished since Helen's funeral.
 
kiwipo said:
if they are closing down the zoo the land it sits on would easily be worth more than even the cost stated for shifting Mila, but I guess Jenny won't want to be dipping into her inheritance.

Where has Helen's husband got to? Tom used to be well involved in helping run the zoo, but seems to have vanished since Helen's funeral.
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The zoo was bought for only $850,000.
 
kiwipo said:
OK, the breakdown of the expenses for shipping Mila to the US now seem quite apparent.

Cost of crate to contain her, $00.00 (offer of free crate from local business)
Cost of Freight to the US ($00.00 (Freight company has offered free freighting)
Cost of Elephant keepers ($00.00 (Ratcliffe and a couple of family members are prepared to look after her for free
Cost of feed while in transit ($00.00 More feed had been donated than she could ever eat)
Cost of Jenny Chung's fee to supervise this $1,450,000
Click to expand...

Jenny Chung mentioned the offers in the Close Up interview.
 
Helen's salary for about 6 1/2 years was only around $30,000. I don't think they would have been able to afford a new zoo director/operator and vet who want full pay.

I honestly don't think that Jenny Chung wouldn't have tried everything possible after making a promise to her sister who has died.

I thought that if this would have happened, the zoo would have been sold as a whole, not give away the animals. The zoo closing down is such a shame, especially since when I last went (only a few days before Helen died), some of the enclosures were being worked on.

I was really disappointed when I heard that Franklin Zoo was closing down, I'll definitely miss visiting.
 
kiwipo said:
OK, the breakdown of the expenses for shipping Mila to the US now seem quite apparent.

Cost of crate to contain her, $00.00 (offer of free crate from local business)
Cost of Freight to the US ($00.00 (Freight company has offered free freighting)
Cost of Elephant keepers ($00.00 (Ratcliffe and a couple of family members are prepared to look after her for free
Cost of feed while in transit ($00.00 More feed had been donated than she could ever eat)
Cost of Jenny Chung's fee to supervise this $1,450,000
Click to expand...

Methinks you assume too much! You've only got your guesstimates partly right.
 
driftaguy said:
I thought that if this would have happened, the zoo would have been sold as a whole, not give away the animals.
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It's a very strange situation. I am aware that an offer to buy the zoo as a going concern was ignored by the zoo's lawyers.

Makes you wonder what is really going on here.
 
driftaguy said:
Most of the domestic animals. I do not know where, probably to farms. Franklin Zoo are working with ZAA to find homes for the exotic animals.
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Thanks for that, would be a good opportunity for Pouakai Zoo to aquire zebras, among other non-ZAA approved stock.
 
I hope Auckland Zoo can take the Pigtail Macaque and maybe the emus, as they currently only have 2 emus; and the Bonnet macaques were originally going to be sent to Franklin Zoo to be with Carol (the Macaque).
 
$850k.......................................................that would go a long way to look after animals!
 
zooboy28 said:
Thanks for that, would be a good opportunity for Pouakai Zoo to aquire zebras, among other non-ZAA approved stock.
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Pouakai was definitely wanting to get more zebra after their one died last (?) year. There aren't an awful lot of exotics at Franklin so it shouldn't be too hard to rehome them (although of course many are "unwanted" in the first place due to age or disabilities). I suspect many may go to Pouakai.

Zoo exotics at Franklin (from driftaguy's thread):
African Elephant – 1
Agouti
Bobcat - 2
Brolga – 1
Capuchin – 2 separate groups
Cotton-top Tamarin – 2 separate groups
Ring-tailed lemur – 2
Pig-tailed macaque – 1
Small-clawed otter – 1 old male
Spider Monkey – 1 male.
Zebra – 2
African clawed frogs [the only herptiles there requiring a permit]
 
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Steve Robinson said:
It's a very strange situation. I am aware that an offer to buy the zoo as a going concern was ignored by the zoo's lawyers.

Makes you wonder what is really going on here.
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been wondering that for a while myself!!
 
Does anyone know whose decision it was to keep the zoo closed until the DOL investigation was finished? Because of this, Franklin Zoo lost 3 months worth of admission revenue, and with the school holidays it would have had an increase in visitors.
 
driftaguy said:
Does anyone know whose decision it was to keep the zoo closed until the DOL investigation was finished? Because of this, Franklin Zoo lost 3 months worth of admission revenue, and with the school holidays it would have had an increase in visitors.
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I *believe* it was legally required to be closed due to not having an approved operator (which had been Helen)
 
Steve Robinson said:
Methinks you assume too much! You've only got your guesstimates partly right.
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You shouldn't have taken this in any way seriously, :cool:

But it would be useful if they actually supplied a breakdown of the costs involved, along with reasons why they seem to want to refuse offers of cheap help.

I already donate to a Zoo in NZ, and would even donate to this cause, if I could be assured of what the money would be used for.

As would many others I think. Would you be willing to donate money to a cause without knowing what it was actually going to be spent on.
 
Reading this thread from a distant land makes me realise how different everything is run in NZ.

I still cant work out whether its better or worse!
 
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