By Michael Rutschky
Published on October 10, 2007
Last Wednesday, October 10, PJC lent the Hagler Auditorium to the Gulf Breeze Chamber of Commerce and Gulf Breeze News for a special Save the Zoo community issues forum. The meeting was part of The Zoo – Northwest Florida’s campaign to raise money and support to repair the damages that occurred during hurricanes Ivan and Dennis. The panel included seven of the most important members of The Zoo’s staff.
“The Zoo has been at financial risk since it was developed,” said Doug Kemper, Exhibit Director for The Zoo since 2002.
Kemper opened the meet by leading the audience through a brief history of The Zoo’s financial troubles in a PowerPoint presentation. During the presentation Kemper mentioned that the Zoo had sustained $1.8 million in damages after Hurricane Ivan, lost its accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and was closed for five and a half months.
When it came to deciding what to do with the property, the Zoo had four options to consider: reduce the size of the Zoo, relocate the Zoo, close the Zoo altogether, or attempt to save the Zoo and restore it. Kemper outlined a strategy that included eliminating the assumed debt and developing private and government partnership support programs. The Zoo has also received accreditation from the Zoological Association of America.
As the meeting went on members of the audience were asked to come up to offer their questions or comments. Although there was a great bit of skepticism from certain members of the audience towards the Zoo’s stance of blaming its downfall on the weather rather than its own poor management, those comments were deflected in an eloquent manner by the members of the panel. The majority of the audience’s comments were complimentary.
“Cultural institutions don’t survive on ticket sales. they all depend on donations from the community,” said audience member Jay Gould, a psychology professor at UWF who also serves as the Immediate Past Present of the Board of Directors for the Gulf Coast Zoological Association. Gould went on to clarify that The Zoo has to meet all federal, local and state regulations for the maintenance of its animals, and that The Zoo welcomes 30,000 students a year to its facilities.
Indeed, the greatest reward that the members of the community felt it received by having The Zoo was the educational benefits that it promises to future generations. To see such a benefit be lost was reason enough for the people in the audience to act.
“This is a beautiful facility we have here,” said Dr. Gus Mueller, The Zoo’s primary veterinarian, “it’ll be here in the future is the community steps up and helps out.”