South Lakes Wild Animal Park South Lakes 2014 #2

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dublinlion said:
@ bigcatspecial, Thanks for the reply, it is plain to see that you have a strong personal dislike of this organisation and thats fair enough but I have an aversion to the use of scaremongering newspaper headlines as a means of point scoring or backup. (there is a fair bit of backup from the Chester Zoo clique anyway lol.)
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I'd agree with you, dublinlion, that bigcat speciali has dislike of David Gill, bordering on the obsessive. But I think this extends to the zoo community in general. Its clear that he has a lot of valuable experience behind him but that he carries a chip on his shoulder. I'd be keen to learn what has engendered such bitterness.

Highlighting media coverage of negative zoo stories is one thing but cutting and pasting every piece of negative zoo publicity onto Zoochat (a forum, after all, for zoo enthusiasts) is unnecessary and really rather boorish.

dublinlion said:
Balance is all I desire
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me too...

dublinlion said:
Maybe in years to come David Gill will evoke the same whimsy and devotion as the Durrells and Mottersheads etc.
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erm... no.
 
dublinlion said:
All zoos have the odd escape.
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It really has been WAY more than "the odd escape".....and to have a few within a matter of days is just insane, careless and negligent! Do we really need to list of the range of species that Gill has populated Cumbria with?

Injuries to staff and visitors alike, as well as seriously questionable husbandry techniques make this joke of a park a liability to the whole zoo industry and it's already delicate reputation. The man clearly needs taking down, but for some bizarre reason, the arrogant gobs**** seems to have 109 lives! :mad:
 
bluetoffeezoo said:
Has anyone heard how the Jags are doing? No update on his facebook which usually means only one thing DNS
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They've updated the South Lakes facebook pages (why does he need two still?! :confused: ) with some new photos of them this afternoon.. apparently doing well so far

..They are very quiet about those Capuchins though. Not heard either has been rounded up yet ;)
 
Just posted on the facebook page.... one does wonder why he reported them missing if they hadn't checked the buildings properly! South Lakes Zoo does get bad press. We go on a regular basis. For the most-part, it's a charming little place and the animals seem well cared for. Yes, there are some interesting mixed exhibits. Yes he makes some controversial choices with regards to baby giraffes, tigers etc. But a lot of people do seem to forget the zoo does give an AWFUL LOT of money to charity and he also uses a lot of local contractors when building new exhibits. Mr. Gill is many things, but you can't deny he has done an awful lot for conservation.



"Many of you may be aware from the press that we have had 2 capuchin monkeys out of their enclosure for a few days. with various suggested sightings out of the zoo. We can confirm this morning that one of them never ever left the site and has been on site all of the time as we found the "little monkey" trapped in one of our quarantine units alive and well. The other one has never been more than a few hundred meters from the zoo at our neighbours farm and is entertaining the animals and owners .. but eluding capture ! it poses no danger to anyone as it is a quiet little monkey just a little scared and wants to be home."




https://www.facebook.com/SouthLakesWildAnimalPark/posts/818354004876457
 
bigcat speciali said:
"The other one has never been more than a few hundred meters from the zoo at our neighbours farm
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bigcat speciali said:
"It is a fact that this little 18 month old little capuchin , (the exact same kind as features in Pirates of the Caribbean) did venture to Ashworth Street Garage . Whilst we have not measured it is not far at all from the Zoo.
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Google Maps suggests that even if the capuchin in question stuck to footpaths, the minimum distance is 1300 metres or so :p

http://goo.gl/maps/tq6J0

Incidentally, the capuchin taxa used in Pirates of the Caribbean were - at various times - the White Fronted Capuchin (Cebus albifrons) and the White-headed Capuchin (Cebus capucinus), as opposed to the taxon held at SLWAP, the Tufted Capuchin (Sapajus apella). So it rather seems that Gill not only is unable to keep his capuchins in, he is also unable to tell capuchin taxa apart ;) at generic level, let along specific.
 
Just because a tame heavily trained monkey starred in a film, doesn't mean to say they aren't dangerous. I've seen first hand the damage that a spooked capuchin can inflict.....not pretty! Silly man for trying to down play it...."entertaining the farmer"! People would respect him more if he gave the matter the serious tone that it deserves and put more effort into catching the thing than to giving glib soundbites to the tabloids!
 
p.s. If heard that now it was 2 monkeys and a wallaby. Is this true?
 
I think they must just fling the doors wide at night time and pray that there are still some animals to show in the morning!:D:confused:
 
On a different note, the two week old Jaguars cubs were today sexed as a pair of females....
 
Ha ha, this is like a couple of hysterical schoolgirls trying to outdo each other with the latest scary headline. Next it will be escaped stick insects causing terror in the lake district.
Did this guy cause some grevious personal harm (sacking, job refusal?) to either or both of you as that would seem to be the only explanation for the uproar.
What is the situation re the staff of this Zoo and how they might react to all this extraordinary criticism of their workplace and employer?
 
"Many of you may be aware from the press that we have had 2 capuchin monkeys out of their enclosure for a few days. with various suggested sightings out of the zoo. We can confirm this morning that one of them never ever left the site and has been on site all of the time as we found the "little monkey" trapped in one of our quarantine units alive and well."

How hard did they look?
 
dublinlion said:
Ha ha, this is like a couple of hysterical schoolgirls trying to outdo each other with the latest scary headline. Next it will be escaped stick insects causing terror in the lake district.
Did this guy cause some grevious personal harm (sacking, job refusal?) to either or both of you as that would seem to be the only explanation for the uproar.
What is the situation re the staff of this Zoo and how they might react to all this extraordinary criticism of their workplace and employer?
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No, I never worked for Gill, but I have friends that have and still do. However, that does not fuel my grievance in the slightest. That's their issue, not mine!

My issues began with a visit to the park and seeing some REALLY poor husbandry choices.

I read up about the controversial history of the park (something you should probably inform yourself about before defending him so vehemently).

Then after visiting his Facebook page, I realised what a distasteful (and hypocritical) man he really is with his extremely verbal manner against anyone that isn't prepared to brown-nose him at any eventuality (and there are many many people that do). He routinely puts his staff and customers at risk. He treats his animals like crap. He throws tantrums towards all official bodies (councils/inspectors etc). And to top it all, he's a vile homophobe!

I hope he gets everything that's coming to him.
 
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Whist I agree that south lakes gets a lot of stick on this forum you have to admit that David Gill doesn't help himself, he seems to do whatever he wants and most of the time goes against the best methods.

I popped on the forum to see if anyone had mentioned the fact that one of his children is holding the jaguar cub on a Facebook post... I knew it wouldn't be long lol
 
mrcriss said:
I read up about the controversial history of the park (something you should probably inform yourself about before defending him so vehemently).

.
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Fair point, and I will try to get some accurate info.

I am trying to be objective and I hate any type of ganging up or bullying.
My natural response is to hinder the attacker rather than join in the kicking.
 
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