Zoo Director "Accomplishment" Fails - Unpacking Director's Retirement Media Attention Pt One

I've mentioned several times in recent posts that I have a series of Unpacking posts related to the news articles that came out announcing current Director Tanya Peterson's Retirement.  It's now been a month since the original two that I pulled irritating notations from came out, The Standard, who broke the news, and The Chronicle that quickly followed.

The drafts I have are three parts, starting with this one which addresses statements relating to Peterson's "Accomplishments".  The focus of the next two will be statements by the Mayor regarding "new management" and "Pandas".   

With the publishing of the Zoo's own offering in their email Newsletter, "A Legacy of Leadership: Celebrating Tanya Peterson’s Retirement", you can probably guess I'm completely over the whole delusion of the situation.  The self-touting is shameful.  And yes, I believe Tanya wrote this one herself.

I'm glad that I didn't get to finishing this post more timely, as I'm able to include this nonsense, and not have to write a second one.  

In the Legacy of Leadership, allegedly written by Peterson herself, the paragraph of particular note for this purpose is... "During her tenure, Ms. Peterson led the Zoo through transformative growth. She spearheaded fundraising for numerous new animal exhibits, including the Great Ape Passage, Snow Leopard Lodge, and Sifaka Sanctuary, as well as major renovations like Komodo Dragon Crossing, Mexican Gray Wolf Canyon, and new habitats for rescued Back Bears and endangered African Lions. She was also the driving force behind the creation of the Wellness & Conservation Center—a one-of-a-kind facility focused on animal well-being and cutting-edge veterinary care."

The Standard quoted Peterson, saying she "Touted her accomplishments, from rescuing blind Sea Lions to creating a beloved Playground and overseeing the construction of several Animal exhibits, including the $9 million Madagascar Center, scheduled to open this fall."

The Chronicle stated...  "Over her long tenure, Peterson oversaw renovations of the Zoo’s aging Chimpanzee and Orangutan facilities and the building of a new exhibit for Sifakas, a type of Lemur from Madagascar. She also has sought to bring Giant Pandas from China to the Zoo, with a date tentatively set for their arrival of April 2026."

Peterson herself mentioning The Great Ape Forest, and the Chronicle Chimpanzees, whether in their own words or gleaning from a Peterson statement is of course my main irk.  

How dare she.

Let me just remind everybody, Tanya Peterson did not want to keep Our Chimpanzees.  Cobby, Minnie and Maggie, were the Zoo's longest residents, having lived at the Zoo over forty-five years.  All taken from the wild, their families probably slaughtered in their kidnapping, Cobby was used in entertainment before coming to the Zoo, and Maggie and Minnie arrived straight from Africa at approximately one year old.  Our Zoo, ten year old Cobby's retirement home and the only home the girls had ever known, and Tanya showed them no respect or care, deciding to kick them out.  Once her secret plan was exposed, public outrage forced her to keep Our Senior Chimpanzees, and build them the new home at the Zoo they were promised in 1997.  

Do not believe Tanya Peterson ever did anything for the Chimpanzees out of her own goodness, she has none.

The Chronicle also mentions Our Orangutans.  Tanya's want for Orangutans, was allegedly the catalyst for her evil plan to evict the Chimpanzees.  She still got Orangutans, bringing them here, even though there was no appropriate place for them to live.  Tanya Peterson kept the Orangutans in the caged tubes of the Skytrails.  They sat there daily, with their sad faces pressed against the mesh, watching the Chimps move freely in their new yard. That was their only outside access for eight months straight.  After two years they finally got access to the old Chimpanzee enclosure, which was deemed by AZA/SSP as unacceptable to house Chimps.  There was not one renovation done FOR them.  They were tossed in the ancient pit, two tiny concrete islands, is their only topical space.  They have languished there for six years.  Tanya has made no attempt to fundraise for them to have an appropriate home built.   But, she sure lit a fire under her ass chasing money for Pandas.

Side note, the Zoological Society, RecPark, and Joint Zoo, all managing and oversight entities, all approved these Great Ape horrors, as their negligence in responsibility blindly supported Tanya's every disgusting and disastrous action during her seventeen year reign of horror upon Our Animals and Our Zoo.

Other notable mentions of Peterson's supposed accomplishments.

Komodo Dragon...  The first Komodo Dragon arrived to Fan Fare in 2013, very young, and small in size.   Media reported that he would reside in a Temporary enclosure, with a new one to be built within a year and a half.   He spent near five years living in a Terrarium before getting an appropriate home.  During those years, allegedly at least three plans were submitted to Director Peterson and they were all vetoed, saying too expensive.  During those years, the Komodo outgrew his enclosure to the point he could no longer fit through the opening to his night quarters, he could no longer turn around in his Terrarium, and he suffered a spinal deformity, that in my opinion could have been caused by having his growth stunted due to living conditions.  

Snow Leopard... The new Snow Leopard enclosure is a joke.  Aside from the scaling wall, the design and size is a complete failure.  It's in appropriately small and narrow.  It looks like a hallway.  

African Lions... The Lions got expanded enclosures, not new.  It's still debatable whether knocking down both finger walls was the right thing to do. 

Madagascar... It's laughable this exhibit is even considered a win.  A Shit-Show from the get go.  $9 Million on a fabricated tree, a small and oddly placed enclosure for Fossa, a handful of insects, and a couple of Tortoise Ponds.  It could have been so much more, or frankly not at all.  They could have acquired Fossa, another small mammal, renovated the old Nocturnal area, built a Tortoise home with an upper level of Birds.  It's a huge Fail, and cost the Zoo over half dozen Monkey Species.  People still asking, Where's the Monkey's?  Why the Patas Monkeys and two Tamarin species were sent out, when they weren't even part of the Mad project is a head-shaker.  

One of the Monkey species displaced were the remaining Squirrel Monkey's that came to the Zoo after being retired from Lab use at Stanford.  It was reported that $250,000 came with them, to be used to build them a new home.  They never got it, and when their existing home came down for MAD, a group ended up living in a concrete room, with no outside access for at least two years.  Oh, and no one seems to know where the $250k went.

The MAD Project should have never happened.  It did because Wants over Needs was given priority.  Tanya grabbed the Donors check with one hand, and gave the middle finger to Animal Needs with the other.

Related Posts:

All relating to Chimpanzees, Orangutans, Komodo Dragon,  Snow Leopard,  African Lions,  Madagascar.

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