Twycross Zoo Vision Statement 2010

zoogiraffe said:
Not a problem,I have enjoyed reading peoples comments on it.

Well personally I don't think they are even close to being a top 15 zoo in the world,that said I don't think they are even in the top 15 in the UK,but thats just my view!
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I'd put Twycross in the UK top 15. I'm not sure that many Dutch, German or American enthusiasts would regard that as terribly high praise. I don't suppose the likes of sooty, Maguari or yourself would either, sadly...
 
IanRRobinson said:
I'd put Twycross in the UK top 15. I'm not sure that many Dutch, German or American enthusiasts would regard that as terribly high praise. I don't suppose the likes of sooty, Maguari or yourself would either, sadly...
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I only have 1 UK zoo in my top 15 and that only just makes it,at 15 just for the record its Chester,in fact its the only UK zoo I have in my top 20!
 
IanRRobinson said:
I'd put Twycross in the UK top 15. I'm not sure that many Dutch, German or American enthusiasts would regard that as terribly high praise. I don't suppose the likes of sooty, Maguari or yourself would either, sadly...
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I think it would make my UK top 15 as well, but not the 10, sadly. On a European level... it wouldn't be in my top 50, and it wouldn't be 'just missing out' either. I just had a quick scan down my list of visited zoos having a rough tot up of any I would definitely rank above Twycross and I reached 50 before even starting on UK zoos.

It's a bit tricky, as I struggle to rank zoos at the best of times, particularly those I'm more familiar with - I never know if I'm being too harsh or too lenient - but it's a long way off the top zoos either continentally or nationally, to my mind.

It is just starting to show improvement, though.
 
IanRRobinson said:
I'd put Twycross in the UK top 15.
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I think I'd have to rank it, perhaps grudgingly, in the UK top 15, but near the bottom of that, on the basis of the size of its collection and the range of Primates on display(being a primate lover;) ). Not for any other reason than that.
 
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gentle lemur said:
Has anyone ever read a Vision Statement (or Mission Statement) from any organisation which was not tripe like this?
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Spot on, they are usually a lot of verbose nothingness... 'Tripe' is a good short word to describe it, 'bilge' being another.
 
Pertinax said:
Spot on, they are usually a lot of verbose nothingness... 'Tripe' is a good short word to describe it, 'bilge' being another.
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And those are just the words fit for printing... :rolleyes:

What really aggravates me is wondering how much the entire exercise cost.
 
Shirokuma said:
Without saying anything that might get anyone in trouble, could someone summarise what people's issues are with Twycross at the moment? It's hard to follow all this as an outsider who has only been to the zoo once, and that was on a fieldtrip for junior members of the North of England Zoological Society circa 1989!
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Anyone...?
 
IanRRobinson said:
And those are just the words fit for printing... :rolleyes:

What really aggravates me is wondering how much the entire exercise cost.
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Exactly, also I wonder how much it cost to make the model of the new carnivore house and all the relevant publicity that was advertised as "coming soon", and as for the very nice walkway around the elephant house with its straw huts, trinkets etc., from what I understand the cost of this could have built the best elephant bull house in the world:(
 
Shirokuma said:
Anyone...?
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Shirokuma. It is a very long and involved story. Different people have different opinions obviously on the problems the Zoo has, which is why so many pages here fill with discussions about its past, present and future.

I can only suggest you delve back through the various Twycross threads, of which there are many, to glean at least some of the historical background and issues involved in this long-running debate.
 
Shirokuma said:
Anyone...?
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My main problem was the gross mis-mangement of the zoo and the money,that had been saved for a rainy day by Molly and Nat.Its just shocking that within 3 years of somebody taking charge the zoo,was at a point that if foot and mouth hit again it would,be at breaking point after just 2 weeks of closure,when before they could have stayed closed for nearly 2 years living off the money in the bank if they needed to!!But the sadest thing was watching money being spent on things like real Bornean Log canoes,and not the animals!

Also the large numbers of experienced staff that left under that mangement,including John Ray who was one person that they could not afford to get rid of!
 
canaryboy said:
If I may ask who is John Ray please? And why was he important:confused:

Thanks
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John Ray initially came to Twycross as a young man, he was a keeper of birds, later Miss Badham and Miss Evans promoted him to zoo manager, a position he held for many years, I think his total years of service was over 25 years, I understand he left later under not happy circumstances
 
canaryboy said:
If I may ask who is John Ray please? And why was he important:confused:

Thanks
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John Ray was the curator and a man of great knowledge,of the animals under the care of his team of keepers,but if you fell out with the Director,you left very quickly!Like I said because of Johns knowledge and the respect he holds within the zoo world,you cannot afford to lose somebody like him!
 
zoogiraffe said:
My main problem was the gross mis-mangement of the zoo and the money,that had been saved for a rainy day by Molly and Nat.Its just shocking that within 3 years of somebody taking charge the zoo,was at a point that if foot and mouth hit again it would,be at breaking point after just 2 weeks of closure,when before they could have stayed closed for nearly 2 years living off the money in the bank if they needed to!!But the sadest thing was watching money being spent on things like real Bornean Log canoes,and not the animals!

Also the large numbers of experienced staff that left under that mangement,including John Ray who was one person that they could not afford to get rid of!
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As well as the liquid assets that went, perhaps the greatest assets this zoo had, ie the long serving, dedicated, loyal, animal loving keepers also went,
 
canaryboy said:
Wow the curator went! No disrespect but the director was a real tyrant.
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Unfortunately this isn't an isolated case in UK zoos of people who are at the top chopping and changing staff at will. It is no different to any other business, obviously, but when zoos let go staff with multiple years experience particularly managers/curators, through tactics such as bullying then overall standards go down. Really poor behaviour but it happens.

Met Ray. Seemed like a good bloke, switched on and well respected by other zoo people. Twycross have been on the decline for some time.
 
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