San Francisco Mayor London Breed posted these words and a video of her visiting Giant Pandas on her trip to China last week.
https://twitter.com/LondonBreed/status/1782896048706642019
In the video she says,...
"We want to make sure that the Giant Pandas that come to San Francisco have the best habitat. ... Because we want our Pandas to be really happy."
I have to believe, that Mayor Breed has the best intentions for the care and welfare of the Pandas, I just want her to have the same empathy and compassion for the Animals that already live at our San Francisco Zoo. I hope she does.
When I heard the words I've quoted above, of course I thought of our Orangutans, and memories of their sad faces, looking out from the caged tubes that were their only home for eight months. Their "habitat". I don't think our Orangutans have ever been happy here. And they still don't have an appropriate, enriching habitat.
Before bringing Pandas here, our Orangutans need, and should also have, "The Best Habitat". They should "be Happy".
Mayor Breed can make that happen.
As I've said in previous posts, because I know how the San Francisco Zoological Society Board and the SF Recreation and Park Dept, have been negligent in their managing duties, deferring to whatever SFZoo Director Tanya Peterson says and does, I don't know if the Mayor has done the same, or if she has innocently bought the illusions that Peterson sells. I hope the later and that with this Panda venture, she will see what's going on and help Fix Our Zoo.
If Mayor Breed wants us to be a World-Class Zoo that can handle having Giant Pandas, then she needs to figure out how the money she raises is also going to help fix the state of things at our desperate Zoo.
She needs to take a good look at the way Director Peterson has mismanaged the Zoo over the last fifteen years. The way to do that is to engage with those who can enlighten her, not by further listening to those who have enabled the mismanagement.
The Chronicle article last Wednesday, noted that the lease agreement had not been renegotiated since 1993. I've known about this for many years, and I've always thought that was outrageous. As the years ticked on and Peterson has done absolutely no apparent fundraising (Zoofest does not count!) and there's more and more things that need to be done, the Zoo gets deeper under a pile of needs. Many of those needs, in my opinion need to be taken care of before we get Pandas. Maybe it seems that's not financially doable. I say, there's thirty years of cost of living increases that should have been negotiated in the lease agreement. Figure it out.
Additionally, as I have also mentioned, no way should any funds be used for two enclosures for the Pandas. Build the permanent one, and the funds that are meant for the temporary one, use them for the Orangutans.
I have read Director Peterson referencing the influx of money the Pandas will bring to the Zoo. That may be so, but the Orangutans will never see that and shouldn't have to wait any longer. Influx can help fix all the other Needs, and pay for trucking in all the bamboo that will be needed to feed the Pandas. Hopefully by then the Zoo will have a new Director who will manage the Needs and Funds accordingly, unlike how Peterson has.
So many Needs at our Zoo, but most of all, our current Animal Residents deserve to be Happy too, not just the arriving Pandas.
Screencap from one of my many videos documenting the plight of our Orangutans. Here Ollie is literally frowning as he watches the Chimpanzees in their yard.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/YFDiUI_uAP0
Orangutan Enclosure Overview Feb 2024
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