San Francisco Zoo What is the current state of fixing the San Francisco Zoo?

[DavidBrown]

Does anybody have any current knowledge of what is going on with the San Francisco Zoo long-term planning effort? There is a thread called "San Francisco Zoo" that is now 3+ years old in which there was much discussion of the long-term planning needed to rescue the zoo from eventual oblivion.

Is there still a major lobbying effort by the animal-rights groups and their political supporters to convert the zoo into some kind of rescue sanctuary? Has the political pressure to do this largely dissipated?

From other recent posts it looks like they still have their horrible chimpanzee exhibit and no intention of replacing it. From comments of others it appears that large areas (MOST?) of the zoo is in a similar state (bear exhibits, cat house, rain forest house, primate center). Does anyone know if there is hope here for renewal, or is this zoo still in trouble regarding long-term health?

 

[reduakari]

Does anybody have any current knowledge of what is going on with the San Francisco Zoo long-term planning effort? There is a thread called "San Francisco Zoo" that is now 3+ years old in which there was much discussion of the long-term planning needed to rescue the zoo from eventual oblivion.

Is there still a major lobbying effort by the animal-rights groups and their political supporters to convert the zoo into some kind of rescue sanctuary? Has the political pressure to do this largely dissipated?

From other recent posts it looks like they still have their horrible chimpanzee exhibit and no intention of replacing it. From comments of others it appears that large areas (MOST?) of the zoo is in a similar state (bear exhibits, cat house, rain forest house, primate center). Does anyone know if there is hope here for renewal, or is this zoo still in trouble regarding long-term health?

Sadly, there's little evidence that there is any viable plan to turn the zoo around. The "animal rights" community in the Bay Area has controlled the dialogue to the point that every decision about every individual animal at the zoo is treated like a matter of national security. Even many of the zoo's supporters are focused on these relatively trivial concerns, much more in keeping with a small-time personal " sanctuary" than a major zoo concerned with innovative exhibition and conservation breeding. Recent comments on this forum provide a good example of this well-meaning but naive mindset.

It will take visionary leadership, a compelling plan, political support, community engagement and many millions of dollars to create the world-class (or even marginally acceptable) zoo that a city of San Francisco's stature should be expected to have. Nothing I've seen or read since the horrific and tragic tiger incident gives me any hope that any of these prerequisites for a reversal of fortune are in place.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

@reduakari
Yes, it is a sham(eful)!

First: blow away those AWs and have some meaningful vision of what the SF Zoo should be and act upon it instead. Maybe they should look at LA for ideas ..?

 

[DavidBrown]

@reduakari
Yes, it is a sham(eful)!

First: blow away those AWs and have some meaningful vision of what the SF Zoo should be and act upon it instead. Maybe they should look at LA for ideas ..?

In a way they did look to the LA Zoo renewal as a model when they hired Manuel Moliendo as their director. He was director of the LA Zoo during its turnaround and really helped improve things there, including helping get a big bond measure passed in 1998 that has made possible the new ape exhibits, elephant exhibit, forthcoming reptile house, etc. The tiger disaster ended his efforts in SF (as they would have anyone probably).

I'm not sure how much progress he was making in SF. They did get the new entrance, Africa savanna complex, and grizzly bear exhibit built in his term, but there is so much that needs to be done there that this doesn't seem like great progress.

During his tenure they lost their elephants; with the animals rights pressure and seeming lack of priority to build a modern elephant complex, perhaps this was inevitable? I would be interested in hearing other opinions about this. I know that they had plans to build new elephant and ape exhibits in the 1990s to bring them up to modern standards.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

With AWs I also partially mean those ilk at Municipality that really do not have a blinker of a vision for the zoo, least of all provide some cash/funding as it was the Municipality that never coughed up when dire renovations were due. And for what reasons, just to please the AWs.