January's Posts - Truths About Zoo Director Tanya Peterson

If anyone has read the four posts I've made so far this year, it will seem like I'm bashing our Zoo Director, Tanya Peterson. I honestly don't think anyone but Director Peterson will see it that way.  The majority of those who work there, who have worked there, and who care about the Zoo, know everything I've written has been honest detailing of what's gone on at our San Francisco Zoo.  I have been vilified by Peterson, by certain staff, and docents, for what I've written.  That's okay, as long as I know that I'm speaking the truth, I don't have a problem with what other people's perception is of me, I never have.  I will never stop being a voice for the Animals and Zoo, and allow the voices of the people who wear rose-colored glasses to perpetuate the Director's mismanagement that has led to Animal Welfare issues and destroying our Zoo in too many ways.  That would allow the illusion that those in power are doing their jobs, and that is simply not true.  

This post didn't happen in the time frame I had hoped, which was closer to the last post, two weeks ago, but I think it's important before I proceed with any further posts, that will surely be in the same vein.  Oh well, I do what I can, when I can.  I'm just really tired of the same old thing.  One of my peeves in life is repeating.  Rehashing, Redoing, anything that involves monotony of bullshit.  And frankly what's been allowed to happen to our Zoo under the direction of Tanya Peterson, is bullshit.  None of it would have happened if the management system supposedly in place, was working as it should.  It has not for at least the fifteen years that I have been monitoring the Zoo.  Fifteen years ago I was 45.  So yea, now it's become a weight I need to be lifted.  I will continue to note things I find an issue, but the same old things, and dealing with a management structure that fails, is so old.  

The management structure I speak of includes Director Tanya Peterson, The San Francisco Zoological Society, and the San Francisco Recreatioin and Park Department.  I think I've mentioned this before, but I have a post in draft that is meant to outline the responcibility of each of those entities, and their fails.  I've had the post, Pyramid Of Power, queued up in a post list for at least four years.  For the purpose of this post, I'll note things in brief, but the in full version will still come in that post.  To sum it up a bit though, the structure has failed to operate as it is intended.  The fails within the Zoo, fall on Director Peterson and that is the name that will keep popping up in my posts, but the blame is also on the Zoological Society & Rec and Park for not doing their jobs and defering to Peterson because they just don't care, and are too lazy to be involved with the Zoo past cocktail parties.  Again, not meaning to bash, but it's the reality.

Speaking about reality.  Since I haven't gotten to the post that I've been meaning to with each new year, basically listing all the fails of the year, and in more recent years, listing every year since Director Peterson has take the reigns, I'll mention a few here.  You can look forward to the full exposure in a future post, currently titled, List Of Offenses.  These are the top Offenses that come to mind, not in any particular order, as they are all offensive.  For more detail, search this blog in upper left corner for words in quotes. ...

*Trying to kick out our Senior "Chimpanzees", their home of near fifty years.

*Acquiring "Orangutans" with no place to house them, keeping them in caged tubes.

*Keeping "Komodo Dragon" in a terrarium, a space too small for him to even turn around in.

*Keeping "Andean Bear" on concrete, allowing his bones to break-down so badly he had to be euthanized, while otherwise mentally and physically healthy. 

Director Peterson has failed in her job to do right by the Zoo, the place she has been tasked to manage the last fifteen years.  I don't say these things to be a bitch or be mean, I say them because I've been watching a place I've cared about my whole life being destroyed for the last fifteen years.

People would laugh, but I seriously think I could run the Zoo better than Tanya Peterson.  I have never had career ambition, but my passion for the Zoo, makes me confident I could.  That passion, along with my empathy for Animals and my ability to learn from those who know things I might not, gives me three up on Peterson.  In addition to having no Animal related qualifications, she doesn't care about the Animals or the Zoo.  If I was going to make just one Case and Point to support that, it would be the acquisition of the Orangutans.  At least I care and over the last fifteen years have learned about the Animals that live there, and used my brain to think of how to make the Zoo better, and thrive each day and into the future.  Director Peterson, may have social and financial standing that looks good on paper, but she has shown no care and action to do the job righteously.  While it's infuriating and frustrating, at the root, it's just downright sad. 

The Zoo is crumbling, like the fence that surrounds it.

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Blogger's Statement

"Personal Opinions and Facts presented publicly are Not against the law or any rules. ... Censorship and Retaliation Actions in an attempt at Suppression are frowned upon by Healthy Societies."

For Full Statement see this post:

https://iamnotananteater.blogspot.com/2018/09/my-zoo-status.html

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Will The Bison See Green This Summer?

On the heels of last night's blog post, where I mentioned the neglect of duties by the City's Rec and Park Dept, I realized I should have linked a video.  So, before leaving today to get stuff done for myself, I'm up early again working on Zoo Animal stuff... because I care.  Is Director Tanya Peterson up working for the Zoo this morning?  And while on that thought, Why has Director Peterson not got involved in this Bison Meadow issue?  Why hasn't she got with her Rec and Park buddies and had the sprinklers fixed?  This has been an ongoing issue for years.  One Park Gardener told me (before they were instructed not to talk to me about it), that the sprinklers in the Bison have broken since they started there thirteen years ago!  No one cares.

How many more years will they all continue to leave the Bison, grazing animals, without lush landscape to graze on?

My latest documentation below.  Note that since the rainy season, the Meadow is lush with green.  So, we only have Mother Nature to thank for that.  By summer it will be dried out again.

Short clip on taken 9.11.23, of the status of Bison Meadow, after the Spring and Summer dry out.  

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmp8OPuZhDA

I an expanded version of Bison issue a week later, when I saw random sprinklers flooding the streets and was outraged that there is no water keeping the Bison Meadow green.  It's linked in the last post I brought it up in last October.

https://iamnotananteater.blogspot.com/2023/10/dianne-feinstein-and-our-bison.html

Search "Bison" on this blog for more information.

Previous Post:

https://iamnotananteater.blogspot.com/2024/01/will-people-line-up-along-broken-down.html

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Blogger's Statement

"Personal Opinions and Facts presented publicly are Not against the law or any rules. ... Censorship and Retaliation Actions in an attempt at Suppression are frowned upon by Healthy Societies."

For Full Statement see this post:

https://iamnotananteater.blogspot.com/2018/09/my-zoo-status.html

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Will People Line Up Along The Broken Down Fence To See Pandas At The Zoo?

So yeah, I finished my last post, had dinner and decided to read some of the other news articles.  I read about eight and watch a few News videos.  The only other new information I got, was the Mayor saying, "You know how people line-up over night to buy tickets for Beyonce, the same thing, that's my hope.  People lining up overnight to go see these Pandas".

My question is, does her vision include people lining up along the Zoo's broken downtrodden shitty third world looking fence?

Seriously, I'm not trying to hate on the Panda thing, I love it, but not for the current state of our Zoo.  People with authority to make sure the Zoo is consistently on track, should have done so a long time ago.  Instead no one has cared and our Zoo is now in dire straits. The City defers to their Rec and Park Dept, who does nothing.  The Zoological Society, defers to Director Tanya Peterson.  Director Peterson has mismanaged the Zoo from the start, and has gotten away with it because no one cares.  

Upon seeing a new fence going up around the Botanical Garden, I saw there was an actual fence program in progress and inquired if the Zoo could get a similar fence, showing the state of the current one.  You would think considering the Zoo is in the Rec and Park Dept they would qualify.  The program manager said No, the Zoo can pay for it themselves!  Unreal and Disgusting.  The Rec and Park, is constantly renovating and creating Playgrounds and pocket parks, yet they can't help the Zoo replace a damn fence?  They should be ashamed for both allowing a place in their Dept to look like this and for not wanting to help when they could have.

I took an update video of the perimeter fence mid-December.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsh6P1n9HRA&si=X32fSRGGAJeODsNq

I know I'm a broken record with this damn fence, but everytime I see it, it upsets me.  I shows just how much no one cares.  This fence has been like this the whole time Director Peterson has been there.  She should be ashamed, but shes obviously not, because she doesn't care. If I was Director, I'd knock this damn thing down myself, day one! ... And if the Rec and Park had put up a fence like at Botanical Garden, graffiti would not be an ongoing issue.  The lack of regard and respect for the Zoo sickens me.

While I'm noting the fence, I might as well play my broken record about the Rec and Park's lack of care for the Bison Paddock.  The sprinklers are still broken, even though they were allegedly fixed.  The Bison meadow was shitty all year, brown and dried out, until it rained.  The Bison had no green to graze on.  

Search this blog for "Fence" and "Bison" to read more.  Like the time this graffiti was left up on the fence for a week, till I finally made a call.  Why was I the one who had to get it taken care of?  

Ok folks, its heading toward midnight, that's it for the day.  I worked over eight hours on three Zoo posts.  Wonder how many hours Director Peterson worked for the Zoo today?  No one will ever know, because no one monitors when she works and she gets paid no matter how little she works or how much damage to our Zoo she does.  She can't even call in to the monthly Joint Zoo Meeting that lasts an hour, eleven times a year.  I'd seriously like to know what she does to earn over $350,000 a year.

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Blogger's Statement

"Personal Opinions and Facts presented publicly are Not against the law or any rules. ... Censorship and Retaliation Actions in an attempt at Suppression are frowned upon by Healthy Societies."

For Full Statement see this post:

https://iamnotananteater.blogspot.com/2018/09/my-zoo-status.html

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Pandas in San Francisco?

The other night a friend sent me a news article, with the notation, "In case you haven't seen..."  I had not.

Before even reading it, my mind was in a tizzy!  So much running through it at once.

First, it sparked coincidental, as that same friend and I had an interaction when she alerted me recently that China was reconsidering allowing Giant Pandas to once again be sent to California.  My response to her hoping for a "miracle" that we get one in San Francisco, was, ... 

"Yes (it would take) a miracle!   One of my news alerts for the Zoo had an article the other day and the lead-in, mentioned Pandas coming to California.  I assumed back to San Diego.  I checked news items and indeed it mentioned San Diego as the previous, but only California as the future.  So who knows.  I don't see it.  I would think SDZ or Oakland would have a better chance.  That said, if the donor who funded his personal Want for Madagascar, would divert millions from that into building an enclosure for them next to Grizzly Gulch, it would be quite a coup!  and increase membership and gate sales in general." 

... Unfortunately there has not been a responsible and well thought out plan for what is best for the Zoo to thrive, at any time during Tanya Peterson's fifteen year reign as Zoo Director.  So, I don't imagine how this could even happen.

Recalling this conversation, was running parallel to the reality of the situation.  Much like when Director Peterson actively and allegedly aggressively, sought to acquire Orangutans.  Upon hearing they were a done deal and on the way, my first thought was, Where are they going?  If you are not familiar with the cruel housing shit-show that our poor Orangutans were put through, search this blog for "Orangutans".  I wondered if Peterson would keep the Pandas in some quarantine box, akin to how she kept the Orangutans in caged tubes, and then after just toss the Pandas in some antiquated enclosure, like she did with the Orangutans.  Thinking about another large Animal coming to the Zoo with no appropriate place to live is very upsetting.  I know how this plays out.  Bright and shiny new toys are acquired, touted with excitement to draw people in and then their needs disregarded.  The afore mentioned Orangutan situation is still a travesty. The enclosure they are in is sixty years old.  It should have been completely renovated, yet not one thing was done FOR them.  As usual Director Peterson cried poor, and they remain in a sad enclosure.  Same thing happened with our first Komodo Dragon.  Peterson promised a new home within a year.  Then she allegedly vetoed all proposed plans,  boo-hoo'ing no money, and he languished in a terrarium, as among other offenses, he grew and grew, eventually even too big to get through the opening to his night quarters.  You can search this blog for "Komodo Dragon" or "Falcor" for more details on his sad life at SFZoo.

As much as I would love to see Pandas here again (I saw them in the 80s and it remains a wonderful memory), and I think having Pandas here would do wonders to uplift the Zoo in many ways, I do not think it should happen until changes are made.  It should in no way happen,...

1. ... while Tanya Peterson is Director.  

*2. ... unless there is definite locked funds for an appropriate enclosure. 

3. ... until an appropriate enclosure is completed.

That all said, the whole money thing is disturbing.  If someone wants to donate for Pandas, they should have helped the Orangutans to have a better home.  That said, the money having Pandas would most likely bring in, could fund a complete overhaul for the Orangutans.  

... Again because of Director Peterson's mismanagement and misuse of what little funds the Zoo apparently has, is why this shouldn't happen while she is still Director.

So, let's move on to the news articles.  As I'm writing this now, I went back to the article from SF Standard that was initially sent to me.  I thought I had read it, but I guess in my tizzy, I didn't.  I had screencapped from the only other article I read, from KRON4, to include in this post, as what I read was so outrageous and frankly delusional.  Now, I'm even more sure, SFZoo should not acquire Pandas.

First the KRON4 ones...

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/san-francisco-asks-chinas-president-for-a-panda/

My reaction to this:

Good grief!  We have no Asian Conservation zone that's specifically designed for a Panda Reserve.  Does she (Mayor Breed) even know how Director Peterson was keeping Orangutans?  Like the folks on the Zoological Board and at the Rec and Park Dept, the Mayor has no clue about what is happening at the Zoo.  I'm not trying to be mean, just saying it like it is.  And if anyone from the Board or City related paid the Zoo any care and attention, it would not be in the state it is.

Additionally, the reporter is obviously another person who does not go to the Zoo, nor did they bother to fact check this supposed "zone".  The Red Panda, Snow Leopard, Asian Rhino and Orangutans, are all in different areas of the Zoo.

This from the SF Standard...

https://sfstandard.com/2024/01/08/panda-san-francisco-zoo/

My reaction to this: 

For starters I just checked the website and I don't see anything about Asian Conservation, and certainly not a specific zone.  Not sure what planet any of these people are on, but nothing is specifically designed for a future fantasy, and certainly not for a Panda Reserve.  

Additionally, this article lays out the cost, and with the rental fee to China, and what is sure to cost in an excess of that twenty-five year old enclosure price tag, this is an outrageous dream to chase.  

That said,... 

*I previously noted about locked funds and such, but now, I have to say, I do not think any donor money should pay for any expenses involving Pandas. So, unless the City of San Francisco is going to completely fund this venture, it is irresponsible to use funds from any other sources to bring Giant Pandas to SFZoo at this time.  Our Zoo needs alot of work since under Director Peterson too many things have been ignored, either because of "no money", or for unnecessary things that money somehow is found for and spent irresponsibly.

So yeah, bottom line, the City needs to pay for the entire expense associated with Giant Pandas coming to San Francisco, and for the duration of their time here.

The articles note the Zoo did not respond with comment on the Panda news, so who knows where this want originated, with Mayor Breed or Director Peterson, or if the two have even spoken about it.   

Previous Post:  2024 or Bust!

https://iamnotananteater.blogspot.com/2024/01/2024-or-bust.html

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Blogger's Statement

"Personal Opinions and Facts presented publicly are Not against the law or any rules. ... Censorship and Retaliation Actions in an attempt at Suppression are frowned upon by Healthy Societies."

For Full Statement see this post:

https://iamnotananteater.blogspot.com/2018/09/my-zoo-status.html

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2024 or Bust!

Happy New Year everyone!  Hoping everyone is feeling like 2024 will be a good year for alot of things.  The past month has been good to me, and I left 2023 feeling a sense of rejuvenation in my life.  I have mentioned over the past couple years, I've had some tough times that have left me among many other things, with no energy to be consistent with this blog.  I've needed to follow-thru on a couple things Zoo related, as well as wrap-up all the posts in draft, that I've referred to in the past.  As we head into the sixteenth year with Tanya Peterson as Director of OUR San Francisco Zoo, for me it's this year or bust.  For me personally, it's sorta stepping back from the need I have to document everything.  Fifteen years is a long time.  I got other things to get done.  I will never stop caring about the Animals or the Zoo, or being vocal about issues, I just may have to stop being so consumingly passionate for a seemingly lost cause.  The Zoo under Peterson at the helm is continuing to circle the drain, and the Zoological Society, and City let it happen.

The goal of this blog has always been to document all the things not right at the Zoo.  I feel if I'm not a voice for what goes on there, no one will be, and the silence lends to not only the lack of knowledge to everyone outside the walls, but the inability to hold the responsible parties accountable. Those responsible parties are the San Francisco Zoological Society Board and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Dept.  Those parties are supposed to be managing entities, which by my definition of that means, they are the checks and balances.  They are supposed to be unbiased in monitoring Director Peterson's management of the Zoo, not let her make decisions that among so many offenses, have led to Animal Welfare issues, and non-existent funds for Needs. Neither the Society or the Rec/Park has fulfilled that responsibility in the fifteen years I've been monitoring the Zoo. I will expand more on this in an upcoming post entitled, Pyramid Of Power, which also details how the Society enable and supports bad decisions, by ignorance and pushing their own personal agendas.  In short, it's a nest of mismanagement that needs reconstruction, starting at the top.  Because seriously, how much longer can our Zoo survive under the same management conditions of the past fifteen years?

Even when I'm not actively in a space for writing posts, I'm constantly making notes.  The Zoo is always on my mind and there is something daily that pops into my mind, whether it's words to use in a blog post or an idea for making the Zoo better.  All these thoughts usually go on my messenger and then I transfer to note pad.  At this point there are way too many notes, here and there to read through for the most part, so for much of the upcoming posts, I'm just winging it.  Certainly all of this post is just as it's flowing from my mind.  There was no real preconception, past the title and a brief thought about the new year.  So, I apologize if I get to rambling, as I have always tried to make posts as concise as possible, while presenting information completely.  I'm also trying to cut down on the time it takes.  Posts usually take an average of six hours, some less, but unfortunately some longer.  This one has gone past three hours now.  With 784 posts to date on this blog alone, without illustrating the route to answer, that's over two years of working full-time. It's alot, and probably rivals if not supercedes the avgerage amount of time our Zoo Director works.  That said, even if after all these years and efforts, I still feel like and seem to be the only person, inside and out who is willing to be the face of the truths, at least most of the truths are out there and documented.  I have had multiple Zoo related blogs over the years, but this one has been the main one for over ten years and my voice has been heard through over 250,000 views.  

blog stats from today

So to wrap-up this post and move on to the next on the list, I'll note my intention at the moment.  If I had continued on with my posts from November, I would have done some additional Animal updates, then previous post follow-ups, then the whole blog wrap-up which will be kicked-off by finally finishing that damn Madagascar post that I started in 2018!  So, now that a couple other things have come to my attention, my plan is to do those newer, timely ones, then get back on course with the old plan, starting with the Animal updates.  But, who knows.

Anyway, Cheers to all who cares about our Zoo Friends and Zoo.  And let's all hope 2024 see's our SFZoo going in a new direction.

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Blogger's Statement

"Personal Opinions and Facts presented publicly are Not against the law or any rules. ... Censorship and Retaliation Actions in an attempt at Suppression are frowned upon by Healthy Societies."

For Full Statement see this post:

https://iamnotananteater.blogspot.com/2018/09/my-zoo-status.html

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