For The Lack Of A Better Title ... Our Failing Director

As I lay here after writing two blog posts back to back, I'm thinking about finally tackling the two that have been waiting for five years.  I've complained for years that I just want to be done with writing about the endless stream of SFZoo Fails perpetrated by the San Francisco Zoo Director Tanya Peterson.  

The San Francisco Zoo is desperate for a new Director.  It has been since the beginning of Peterson's reign.  Her mismanagement is well documented, not only in my blog, but many media stories, and most severly by the low morale among staff, stemming from her lack of care, in favor of running the Zoo as a dictator rather than team member who wants what's best for the Animals and the Zoo.  We all dream of the day she is replaced and hopefully by someone with a vision on how to keep our Zoo thriving and not circling the drain as she has.  

I have way more to say about this, but will leave it at that for now.  I was just prompted by this post from Oakland Zoo.

I have written about many of my ideas over the years.  Some that have been used, others I keep to myself in a long running notebook.  I see so clearly how things could be different. How things could be better.  I have endless ideas that could help our Zoo thrive in so many ways, but it is not my job.  It is the job of our Zoo Director and the top staffers who make up over a million dollars in salary.  Money wasted in my opinion, as our Zoo slowly dies.

That all said, I've documented ideas I've had that have gotten done at our SFZoo, and those, particularly that were done by other Zoos during the Covid Shutdowns, as SFZoo did nothing during that time to raise funds.  It was very frustrating to have dozens of ideas, and watch them come to fruition at other Zoos and venues during a time when every business was scrambling to create income, and there was our Zoo, doing nothing.  Yet, our Zoo Director's been crying poor for Animal Needs for years before any shutdown.  And there's still the fact that while Animal Care Staff, THE most essential workers at the Zoo, were asked to cut their hours, Director Peterson allegedly took little to no pay cut.  Still getting paid, yet no ideas for fundraising coming from her.  What was she doing for the six months the Zoo was shutdown?  My head just spins at all this disgusting nonsense.

So, as I've finished two posts today, I see this and I applaud the Oakland Zoo for their Member's Hour. ... I have maintained that you have to give to get.  Director Peterson does not see that.  Not just with this, but with so much.   The need for creating community is lost on her.  No Community and No Fundraising, among the biggest fails.  Fifteen years of Peterson, so much wasted time.  By not valuing the concept of community, the Zoo can not flourish.  

It has been my longtime idea that the SFZoo permanently change the hours to 10-4, with 9-10 designated as Members Hour.  By changing closing time to 4, there doesn't have to be seasonal hours, and it allows for evening events during Daylight Saving Time.  Not only does this benefit Members, it creates many different opportunities for extra influx of money.

One of the things that was my suggestion back in 2009, before Director Peterson branded me as Zoo Enemy Number One,  was changing to winter hours.  After our Grizzly Bear incident, which for those who don't know, was when a visitor trespassed into our Grizzly Girls home and almost got them killed.  Allegedly the target team had rifles pointed at them ready to shoot.

I was horrified at this event, as just two years prior, we lost Tatiana (Tiger) because of jerk visitors who were allowed to roam the Zoo as daylight was fading.  I immediately sent an email to Director Peterson, and said, "Are you waiting for another Tiger event?"  Why is the Zoo open during the winter when it gets dark early?  The Zoo should close early.  To my surprise, but also relief, at the next Joint Zoo Meeting, Peterson adopted the idea as her own, and asked the committee to approve winter hours.

The Tiger tragedy was Christmas Day.  The Grizzly event in late November.  How is it immediately after that Christmas Day, the hours weren't changed?   Tanya Peterson was touted in media as the Zoo's "savior" when she became Director in early January 2008, just weeks after the Rec and Park scapegoated the previous Director for the Tiger tragedy.  Why didn't she identify the hours thing as an issue?  Why did a Member of the Public have to point it out?

So many things that need fixing there.  Mostly simple things that the Director and her heavily salaried payroll suckers should be thinking of and doing. 

Ok, well now I'm a bit hyped up, again fantasizing about things that do not exist with our SFZoo, and won't until our San Francisco Zoo Director Tanya Peterson is replaced.  Maybe that will someday be a reality and not just another fantasy.