Toronto Zoo What the #@$%! is going on with the Toronto Zoo?

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Can one of our Canadian Zoochat friends help decipher for us what is going on with the governance of the Toronto Zoo?

From the article link posted below it looks like the mayor of Toronto actually wants to sell the zoo, not convert to a non-profit governing structure like so many zoos do, but actually sell the zoo, presumably for profit.

Why is all of this going on in Toronto? Does it all stem from the ongoing elephant debacle? From some of the commentary in the article it sounds like they may even lose their giant panda display rights over this.

Toronto Zoo used to be widely respected, but now it looks like it is being run into the ground by crazy people. What is the best case scenario that could come out of this?

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/1...shes-council-halts-search-for-new-zoo-owners/
 
Thanks GorillaFan15, but how did things get to the point where people are actually talking about selling the zoo?
 
Last year, a company hired by the city to look into ways to reduce the deficit, suggested that the Zoo should be sold. After almost a year, the city issued a request for expression of interest at the beginning of the week (which the mayor supported fully). The only problem is that about 600 of the 710 acres that the zoo sits on is owned by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and is leased to the Zoo. Any deal to sell the zoo would have to be approved by both the TRCA and the Provice of Ontario and the lease would have to be renegotiated. The TRCA voted last week at their board meeting that they would not support selling the Zoo. Last night city council voted to cancel the request of expression (for the time being). They will take time now to analyze the change in governance model proposed by the Zoo board. This change was proposed in part due to the Zoo losing their AZA accrediation when city council got involved with the elephants.

The governance report can be found here (2nd link after the list of meeting dates):
Toronto Zoo | Board of Management of the Toronto Zoo
 
Another interesting article on this train-wreck of a zoo. The ray of hope seems to be the arrival of the giant pandas, as the renovation of the tiger exhibit allowed the zoo to save a fortune on constructing a brand-new habitat. Also, FedEx has come on board as a supporter of the panda program by covering the $3.7 million shipping fee. Amazingly, the zoo's elephants are not even mentioned in the article, but they won't even be missed with the arrival of the iconic black-and-white bears and the expected surge in attendance.

A zoo of a city | Columnists | Opinion | Toronto Sun
 
I think Toronto is a great zoo (my second favorite zoo) but all these issues are making people think this is a bad zoo. I think that they should have gotten rid of their elephants earlier because when I went their in early August only a hand full of people were watching the elephants. Most people were walking past the exhibit not even knowing it held elephants.
 
Well, I don't think elephants' popularity, or lack of, has anything do with them still being at the zoo. I think they want to make sure they have a good home first before they send them anywhere.
 
TropicWorld54 said:
I think Toronto is a great zoo (my second favorite zoo) but all these issues are making people think this is a bad zoo. I think that they should have gotten rid of their elephants earlier because when I went their in early August only a hand full of people were watching the elephants. Most people were walking past the exhibit not even knowing it held elephants.
Click to expand...

You also like Brookfield Zoo (which I rank in the top 15-20 American zoos) but that is another facility with plenty of outdated exhibits and a vast animal collection. Toronto has had a lot of bad press in recent years but there have been numerous articles stating that there is a need for large funds of anywhere from $200-300 million to overhaul the many antiquated pavilions. It is a good zoo and one of two in Canada that stand out from the rest, but overall I personally feel as if Toronto is badly in need of a complete renovation and some much-needed stability. If it was a great zoo then there wouldn't be many articles that are easily found on Google declaring that it needs millions of dollars in changes.:)
 
snowleopard said:
You also like Brookfield Zoo (which I rank in the top 15-20 American zoos) but that is another facility with plenty of outdated exhibits and a vast animal collection. Toronto has had a lot of bad press in recent years but there have been numerous articles stating that there is a need for large funds of anywhere from $200-300 million to overhaul the many antiquated pavilions. It is a good zoo and one of two in Canada that stand out from the rest, but overall I personally feel as if Toronto is badly in need of a complete renovation and some much-needed stability. If it was a great zoo then there wouldn't be many articles that are easily found on Google declaring that it needs millions of dollars in changes.:)
Click to expand...

We both have been to Columbus and I personally think Toronto is not very far behind Columbus and way ahead of Brookfield the only reason Brookfield is in my top three is because I have not visited many zoos. Many people on this website hate the orangutan exhibit and gorilla exhibits but I think they are average and have lots of enrichment with natural substrate on the ground.
 
blospz said:
Well, I don't think elephants' popularity, or lack of, has anything do with them still being at the zoo. I think they want to make sure they have a good home first before they send them anywhere.
Click to expand...

I think it's actually more that the Toronto Zoo wants to keep their AZA accreditation. The PAWS animal sanctuary is not accredited by the AZA, and therefore when the Toronto Zoo agreed to send their elephants there the zoo lost it's accreditation, and I believe that's why they revoked the decision. They're looking for somewhere else that will take them, which is too bad because I'm sure PAWS would have been a fantastic new home for them.
 
Ebillan said:
I think it's actually more that the Toronto Zoo wants to keep their AZA accreditation. The PAWS animal sanctuary is not accredited by the AZA, and therefore when the Toronto Zoo agreed to send their elephants there the zoo lost it's accreditation, and I believe that's why they revoked the decision. They're looking for somewhere else that will take them, which is too bad because I'm sure PAWS would have been a fantastic new home for them.
Click to expand...

If you look at some of the other threads on here about the Zoo you would see that accreditation was lost because of the decision that the Zoo did not have proper management of the zoo, with the city who has no zoo background is the one who gets to make the big choices, and when it comes to animals that isn't the safest bet.
 
Blondie said:
If you look at some of the other threads on here about the Zoo you would see that accreditation was lost because of the decision that the Zoo did not have proper management of the zoo, with the city who has no zoo background is the one who gets to make the big choices, and when it comes to animals that isn't the safest bet.
Click to expand...

Oh, you're right. I've looked it up again and the wording just makes it seem as though they lost their accreditation due to PAWS not being accredited by the AZA;

"The AZA sent a letter to the Toronto Zoo last week announcing the decision [to revoke their accreditation].
The move comes after city council voted last year, over the objections of their handlers, to send the zoo’s three aging elephants to a non-AZA-accredited sanctuary in California called PAWS."

However later in the article they do go on to say-

"The AZA says the council vote contravened the association’s governance rules. The rules state, among other things, that 'while the governing authority (city council) may have input, the decisions regarding the animal collection must be made by the professionals who are specifically trained to handle the institution’s animal collection.'"

I didn't read carefully enough, thanks for the correction
 
snowleopard said:
Another interesting article on this train-wreck of a zoo. The ray of hope seems to be the arrival of the giant pandas, as the renovation of the tiger exhibit allowed the zoo to save a fortune on constructing a brand-new habitat. Also, FedEx has come on board as a supporter of the panda program by covering the $3.7 million shipping fee. Amazingly, the zoo's elephants are not even mentioned in the article, but they won't even be missed with the arrival of the iconic black-and-white bears and the expected surge in attendance.

A zoo of a city | Columnists | Opinion | Toronto Sun
Click to expand...

snowleopard said:
You also like Brookfield Zoo (which I rank in the top 15-20 American zoos) but that is another facility with plenty of outdated exhibits and a vast animal collection. Toronto has had a lot of bad press in recent years but there have been numerous articles stating that there is a need for large funds of anywhere from $200-300 million to overhaul the many antiquated pavilions. It is a good zoo and one of two in Canada that stand out from the rest, but overall I personally feel as if Toronto is badly in need of a complete renovation and some much-needed stability. If it was a great zoo then there wouldn't be many articles that are easily found on Google declaring that it needs millions of dollars in changes.:)
Click to expand...

Snowleopard, you seem to be a well-respected member of ZooChat, but I think that you calling the Toronto Zoo a "train-wreck" goes a little far. Yes the zoo is in need of a lot of money to update existing exhibits and pavilions. The zoo was built almost entirely at one time, which means that all those areas need updating and renovations at the same time. In recent years, the zoo has spent millions of dollars on updating the African Rainforest and Australasia Pavilions, building the new Tundra Trek exhibit and are now building the new Eurasia section. So it's not as if the Zoo isn't doing anything to improve exhibits. Also, as I mentioned at the beginning of this thread, the Toronto Zoo is trying to find some stability in its governance, with a proposal to eventually cut ties with city council being considered in the near future.

In regards to your last comment about the numerous negative articles written about the zoo, maybe you're not familiar with Toronto media. There is rarely a positive article written about anything to do with Toronto (google the Toronto Maple Leafs for an example). From reading this forum, I am aware that you visited the Toronto Zoo back in 2008 (?) and didn't have the greatest opinion of it, but a lot has changed since then and I don't think you can make a completely informed decision on the status of the zoo based on google searches.
 
@adams7: good point about the Toronto media! I've seen 180 zoos/aquariums in my life and Toronto really underwhelmed me back in 2008 but I'm sure that it has improved a lot in the last few years. Whether those improvements make it a "great" zoo is questionable, as the elephant fiasco and the outdated pavilions won't go away overnight. Tundra Trek has some ghastly fake rock, but the large green area for the polar bears is superb and I applaud the effort. As a proud Canadian I hope that the giant pandas bring some positive news back to the zoo, as at the moment I'd vote for Calgary as the #1 Canadian zoological park. I think that one of Toronto's major issues is its vast size, as there is so much to update and it must be tough to constantly have sections that might not be up to a high standard.
 
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